Eunpyeong-gu COVID-19 Emergency Duty 25 Hours

Management of Rapidly Increasing Self-Quarantined Individuals through Scientific Quarantine System Operation... Psychological Counseling for Quarantine Staff and Medical Personnel... Glove-Wall Operation... Non-Face-to-Face Reservation System for Screening Clinics Planned

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] After 9 p.m. on the 3rd, the phone counseling room on the 3rd floor of the Eunpyeong-gu (District Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) Public Health Center rings incessantly. The personnel handling COVID-19 consultations are general public officials dispatched to the health center. They receive various questions from residents regarding the possibility of diagnostic testing, disposal of garbage bags during self-quarantine, requests for disinfection, personal complaints, and more.

The administrative staff involved in COVID-19 prevention are also on emergency duty. Personnel from other departments who received work orders from the COVID-19 Task Force have been mobilized and deployed for comprehensive COVID-19 prevention administration.

From 9 a.m. on September 4th, staff in charge of guiding at the screening clinic assist residents who visit for specimen testing. Based on early experiences with COVID-19, Eunpyeong-gu established the ‘Eunpyeong-type Specimen Collection Room’ in April, introducing a Glove-Wall system that separates patients and medical staff during specimen collection to minimize infection risk during testing.

This preparation has led to rapid testing even amid the recent resurgence of COVID-19. Additionally, as the first autonomous district nationwide, visual support boards for the disabled, foreigners, and the elderly have been installed as a measure to consider vulnerable groups.

At 9:50 a.m., public officials gather in the district office’s general meeting room. They have set out to encourage specimen testing and inform administrative orders to participants of the August 15 Gwanghwamun rally. Their expressions, tasked with conveying the authority of administration, are solemn.

Managing self-quarantine has limitations with only a dedicated team. As of 3 p.m. on the 4th, with a significant increase not only in confirmed cases but also in self-quarantined individuals, non-health center personnel, including public officials engaged in routine duties, have been deployed to manage self-quarantine. Even during work, they visit homes to deliver hygiene kits and conduct frequent phone consultations via apps for those in self-quarantine.

Moreover, more personnel need to be deployed for tasks ranging from specimen test requests to sending test result text messages.

At 8 p.m. on the 4th, additional personnel were assigned to the epidemiological investigation team, which is actively conducting investigations. The Eunpyeong epidemiological investigation team is engaged in proactive epidemiological investigations. In fact, during the early stages of COVID-19, information secured through epidemiological investigations was reported to Guro-gu, where the call center is located, resulting in all call center staff being placed under self-quarantine the same day, preventing a large-scale local infection in the early phase of COVID-19.

The participation of non-health center public officials in prevention administration is the result of the systematically operated Eunpyeong-gu prevention system, which has been in place since February. The district’s prevention system operates systematically, including screening clinic operations, self-quarantine management, ‘immediate response’ measures upon signs of cluster infections, and emergency disinfection. Eunpyeong’s prevention emergency duty operates 25 hours a day.

A self-diagnosis campaign for infectious disease prevention is also underway. For the first time nationwide, thermometers will be sequentially distributed to 210,000 households in Eunpyeong-gu, and the ‘Temperature Check Once a Day (Check)! Campaign’ will be conducted, encouraging residents to measure their body temperature and upload certification photos or videos on social media.

Additionally, from October, the first nationwide non-face-to-face reservation system for screening clinics will be implemented, allowing medical appointment reservations, epidemiological investigation forms, and medical questionnaires to be completed via mobile devices.

Meanwhile, psychological support services will be provided to the rapidly increasing self-quarantined individuals, general residents, and the prevention staff and medical personnel experiencing heavy workloads due to COVID-19. Self-quarantined individuals will receive psychological stabilization items (stress balls, stretching bands, bean sprout growing kits, mind care guides, etc.) and phone numbers for psychological counseling. General residents can receive non-face-to-face counseling through the Eunpyeong-gu Office and Eunpyeong Public Health Center websites. Staff engaged in long-term prevention administration report stress, anxiety, and depression. Therefore, professional counselors from the Psychological Support Center ‘Dadokim’ provide one-on-one face-to-face counseling to listen to the voices of physically and mentally exhausted staff and offer expert prescriptions.

Kim Mi-kyung, Mayor of Eunpyeong-gu, stated, “As the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases increases, the fatigue of public officials is very high, but everyone is working hard to protect the safety of residents. We have also been able to provide professional psychological support and counseling programs to self-quarantined residents and the general public.” She added, “We will implement professional psychological counseling programs for staff to ensure that those responsible for prevention in Daegu maintain their best condition.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.