Gwangju Metropolitan City "Spent a Peaceful and Safe Lunar New Year Holiday"

Approximately 660,000 Returning Home, 530,000 Returning to Seoul... Decrease in Transported Passengers

On the afternoon of the 14th, the last day of the Lunar New Year holiday, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, visited the Gwangju Health and Environment Research Institute in Yuchon-dong, Seo-gu, to inspect the testing process and encourage the staff on emergency duty. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] It has been confirmed that Gwangju Metropolitan City spent a peaceful Lunar New Year holiday period without major incidents such as COVID-19 cluster infections or large-scale fires.

According to Gwangju City on the 14th, as of 12 noon on that day, approximately 660,000 visitors traveled to Gwangju during the holiday period via Gwangju Songjeong Station, Gwangcheon Terminal, the airport, and private vehicles, while about 530,000 returnees left Gwangju.

Due to restrictions on movement to prevent COVID-19, the number of transported passengers significantly decreased compared to previous years. Compared to the last day of last year's Chuseok holiday, the daily average number of visitors was down 45.4%, and returnees decreased by 48.8%.

Also, with Mangwol Cemetery Park and Yeongnak Park completely closed during the holiday period, visitors to ancestral graves made advance visits before the holiday, with a total of about 95,000 people visiting over the week from the 4th to the 10th. Citizens who could not visit in advance used the e-Haneul online memorial and grave-visiting service and Yeongnak Park's online memorial room to pay respects remotely, marking a different Lunar New Year scene from previous years.

Gwangju City operated a quarantine response organization and personnel on a regular basis during the Lunar New Year holiday to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Thirteen screening clinics, including the temporary screening clinic at City Hall, as well as three residential treatment centers and infectious disease specialized hospitals, operated normally as usual. To specially manage those in self-quarantine during the holiday, an emergency response team of 126 people in six groups was on duty, and joint surprise inspections with related agencies were conducted on the 12th and 13th to thoroughly respond to emergencies.

To ensure no gaps in quarantine response during the holiday, special quarantine inspections were conducted at key management facilities to establish a special quarantine posture. Thirty-two inspection teams were formed to focus on compliance with quarantine rules at high-risk locations for infection spread, including ▲religious facilities ▲cultural facilities ▲sports facilities ▲entertainment bars ▲restaurants and cafes.

Additionally, 25 emergency medical institutions provided 24-hour emergency medical services during the holiday. A duty system operated ▲143 hospitals and clinics ▲232 holiday duty pharmacies ▲10 public health clinics to provide medical services to citizens.

For stable fuel supply during the holiday, 273 gas stations and 55 LPG filling stations operated normally, and 47 LP gas sales outlets also operated on designated days by region.

Furthermore, the city operated ▲Traffic Safety Situation Room ▲Emergency Water Supply Situation Room ▲Cleaning and Environmental Pollution Situation Room ▲Forest Fire Prevention Situation Room ▲Emergency Response Team for Heavy Snow and Cold Waves to ensure no inconvenience to citizens' daily lives.

During this Lunar New Year holiday, there were ▲6 fires ▲25 traffic accidents ▲600 rescue and emergency cases, but most were minor incidents, and no major accidents occurred due to the prompt response of the 119 emergency medical teams to various emergency and rescue calls.

The 365 Life Civil Complaint Office and each situation team handled 111 civil complaints, and the Gwangju City 120 Bitgoeul Call Center processed 490 consultation complaints.

Meanwhile, Mayor Lee Yong-seop visited the Health and Environment Research Institute on the last day of the holiday to encourage frontline workers who were working to protect citizens' safety from COVID-19 during the Lunar New Year holiday period.

Gwangju City established the ‘2021 Lunar New Year Special Quarantine and Citizen Life Stability Measures’ with 56 tasks in two areas to ensure that citizens and visitors could have a healthy and safe holiday. During the holiday, a comprehensive situation room composed of 127 people in seven teams was operated to help citizens spend a comfortable and safe Lunar New Year holiday.

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