Gyeongnam Raises to Level 2 from the 8th... Infection Route at Senior Center Still Unclear

Shin Jong-woo also appointed as Director of the Welfare and Health Bureau.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Saeyan] As the infection route at the elderly day care center in Gimhae-si, Gyeongnam remains unclear, social distancing in Gyeongnam is being raised to Level 2.

Gyeongnam Province announced on the 6th that from 0:00 on the 8th, social distancing will be elevated to Level 2 across all 18 cities and counties in the province.

The province has been considering raising social distancing as recent small-scale cluster infections, transmission among family and acquaintances, as well as cases with unknown infection routes or asymptomatic confirmed patients have not decreased.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters also judged this afternoon that the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is at a dangerous stage of nationwide outbreak and raised social distancing to Level 2.

The average daily number of local infections in the province has exceeded 15. The range of occurrence has expanded from 4 cities/counties including Changwon, Jinju, Gimhae, and Hadong to 11 cities/counties currently.

Since the 24th of last month, double-digit confirmed cases have been reported daily, and with 200 infections occurring in just ten days, the province judged this as a "dangerous situation where infection can occur anytime and anywhere."

Currently, in the province, Changwon, Jinju, Gimhae, and Hadong have social distancing at Level 2, while the other cities and counties are at Level 1.5.

The province recently requested the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency to designate Gimhae-si and Geoje-si as precision quarantine support areas. If designated as precision quarantine support areas, they will receive support for testing costs for mass testing, quarantine supplies, and personnel needed for epidemiological investigations.

Shin Jong-woo, Director of the Welfare and Health Bureau of the province, said, “We will expand the scope of testing and proactively test high-risk facilities to quickly identify risk factors and block the spread of infection at an early stage.”

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