Changwon City Urges COVID Testing for Anyone with Cold Symptoms... Emergency Measures to Prevent Spread

Mayor Heo Seong-mu of Changwon is explaining the recent cluster infection transmission situation due to family gatherings and the city's quarantine measures through a briefing.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Jucheol In] The Nth wave of COVID-19 infections related to a family in Changwon, Gyeongnam is spreading. The number of confirmed cases, including this family, has suddenly increased to 21, but the initial infection route remains 'unknown.'

On the 6th, Changwon Mayor Heo Seong-mu held a press conference and announced that to block the spread of local COVID-19 infections following the confirmation of five family members, anyone with even mild cold symptoms who obtains a doctor's note and visits a screening clinic will be tested free of charge. The testing costs will be covered by Changwon City.

The five family members in Changwon were confirmed positive one after another starting with the son on the 3rd, followed by the father, mother, and two older sisters by the morning of the 4th.

The high school son first showed fever symptoms during his commute to school and underwent a COVID-19 test, after which the family members were tested as well. However, health authorities have identified that the initial symptoms such as a runny nose were likely experienced by the father since the end of October.

By the morning of the 6th, 16 people who had contact with these five family members were sequentially infected with COVID-19.

However, the source of infection for the presumed initial symptomatic person, the father (Gyeongnam case 322 / Changwon case 93), remains unknown.

Lee Jong-cheol, head of the health center, said, “We conducted an epidemiological investigation, but we still cannot definitively determine the infection route of the five family members.”

He added, “Changwon case 93 did not overlap in movement with existing confirmed cases in Changwon City. Although he traveled to Busan several times to attend funerals, Busan City confirmed that no patients were reported at the places he visited.”

Mayor Heo Seong-mu said, “The biggest problem is that the infection route of the five family members who triggered local infections in Changwon has not been accurately identified,” and urged people to refrain from gatherings or events for the time being, warning that there may be social infections in the community that we do not know about.

He continued, “Next week, large-scale events such as the Korea-Chinese Business Week will be held in Changwon. Although these are online non-face-to-face events and not gatherings of many people in person, we will establish thorough separate quarantine measures to ensure the events are held safely.”

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