Jeonnam Province Implements Strict Measures Including Ban on Hospital Visits During Lunar New Year Holiday

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province has implemented high-intensity measures such as banning visits to medical institutions during the Lunar New Year holiday period to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The province announced on the 10th that these measures were prepared to prevent community re-spread that could occur from visits by returning holiday travelers during the holiday period and to ensure the safety of patients vulnerable to infection, as the COVID-19 outbreak continues mainly in the metropolitan area.

The measures apply to a total of 215 medical institutions in the province, including general hospitals, hospitals, Korean medicine hospitals, and nursing hospitals.

The ban on visits is essential not only to block infection of patients vulnerable to COVID-19 but also because if the virus spreads to medical staff, it could affect medical treatment, according to health authorities.

In particular, since there are many 5-6 person rooms in Korea, visits by family and relatives can cause discomfort to other patients in the same room and increase the risk of infection.

Medical institutions with many elderly patients, such as nursing hospitals, have a high possibility of large-scale casualties if COVID-19 infections occur.

Additionally, the province conducts proactive testing twice a week for workers at nursing hospitals, which are infection-vulnerable facilities.

Before returning to work after the Lunar New Year holiday, 11,000 rapid antigen test kits were also provided to the target medical institutions to enable COVID-19 testing for these workers.

Gwak Jungil, Director of the Food and Drug Division of Jeonnam Province, said, “To block COVID-19 infections through medical institutions during the Lunar New Year holiday, we will do our best to ensure the safety of residents and the quarantine of medical institutions by ‘stopping visits.’ We will improve the visiting culture to replace visits with video calls in preparation for the post-COVID-19 era.”

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