Seoul City Reports 9.2% of COVID-19 Cases Among Foreigners... Campaign to Encourage 'Vaccination and Proactive Testing'

City, District, Police Station, and Foreign Support Facilities Joint On-site Campaign in Foreign Resident Concentrated Areas

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] As the proportion of foreign COVID-19 cases among the total confirmed cases in Seoul is increasing, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 7th that it will intensively promote a campaign encouraging foreign residents to get vaccinated and undergo proactive testing. The plan aims to ensure that no foreigners face difficulties in participating in COVID-19 vaccination and proactive testing due to lack of quarantine information or language barriers.

Seoul will first carry out joint on-site campaigns in major foreigner-dense areas such as Guro, Yeongdeungpo, and Yongsan in cooperation with district offices, police stations, and foreigner support facilities. On the 8th, a final campaign activity will be conducted centered around Daerim Central Market in Yeongdeungpo-gu, involving officials from Seoul City, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Yeongdeungpo Police Station, Seoul Global Center, and Chinese-Korean organizations.

In particular, Seoul has judged that the vaccination rate among foreigners is somewhat low compared to natives due to more complicated reservation procedures and lack of multilingual guidance. Therefore, it plans to actively promote that pre-registration is proceeding under the same standards and procedures for both natives and foreigners by distributing a leaflet that summarizes COVID-19 vaccination-related information at a glance.

Furthermore, until the 18th, when pre-registration for vaccination for those aged 18 to 49 ends, online and offline promotional activities will continue through 18 foreigner support facilities and relevant district offices in foreigner-dense areas such as the southwestern part of Seoul.

Efforts to increase foreign residents’ participation in proactive COVID-19 testing will also continue. In August, multilingual posters encouraging proactive testing were produced and distributed and posted at 4,475 locations with high foreign resident traffic, such as construction sites and employment agencies. The proactive testing encouragement video will be broadcast until the 10th at 29,664 locations including outdoor electronic billboards and subway platforms.

Information related to COVID-19 quarantine for foreign residents (available in 13 languages) can be found on the Seoul Global Center website, and inquiries can be made via the Seoul Global Center’s main phone line.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Women and Family Policy Office, said, “Foreign residents are experiencing double hardships due to language and information gaps amid the COVID-19 situation, and it is urgent to deliver accurate quarantine information to prevent spread not only to themselves but also to those around them.” She added, “We will do our best to eliminate blind spots in quarantine through continuous promotion and multilingual guidance support by linking local resources and to create a safe living environment for foreign residents.”

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