Jinju City, One-Fifth of Citizens Tested for COVID-19

Jinju City's Population is 1/10 of Gyeongnam, COVID-19 Tests Account for 1/4 of Gyeongnam's Total
Family (67) and City-Led Preemptive Testing (23) Make Up Half of Confirmed Cases in the Past Month

Jinju City COVID-19 Screening Clinic (Photo by Jinju City)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] The new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) testing in Jinju-si, Gyeongnam, has tested about one-fifth of the entire population, making it the city with the highest testing rate relative to population among urban areas in the province.

The city's COVID-19 testing accounts for one-quarter of the total tests conducted in the province.

Nationwide, there are 66,686 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which Gyeongsangnam-do has 1,475 cases. Changwon-si has the highest number with 428 cases (29.0%), followed by Jinju-si with 263 cases (17.8%), Geoje-si with 176 cases (11.9%), and Gimhae-si with 170 cases (11.5%).

In terms of population size, Jinju-si ranks fourth in the province after Changwon, Gimhae, and Yangsan, with a relatively high proportion of confirmed cases.

Currently, the number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the city is 65,605, which exceeds 25% of the total tests in Gyeongnam (256,538 tests). The positive rate relative to the number of tests is 0.40% (263/65,605) in Jinju-si, compared to 0.57% (1,475/256,538) for the entire province.

While 8% of the province's population has been tested for COVID-19, Jinju-si has tested nearly 20% of its population.

The city has a total of 54 screening clinics combining public health centers and private medical institutions across the province. The average number of clinics in the 18 cities and counties is 3, but Jinju-si has as many as 8 clinics, and it is the only city nationwide operating 24 hours a day.

The city covers the personal costs of COVID-19 testing for all citizens regardless of epidemiological links or symptoms.

So far, a total of 8,057 people have undergone free diagnostic testing, enabling the early detection of 32 cases, including 20 latent infections and 12 infections from contact, proactively blocking community transmission.

Health authorities emphasize the need to increase testing numbers to identify asymptomatic cases, which account for over 20% nationwide during the third wave of COVID-19.

Jinju-si explained that while expanding free diagnostic testing for all citizens may temporarily increase the number of confirmed and self-quarantined cases, it is an unavoidable measure to more thoroughly prevent the spread of local infections in the long term.

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