Suncheon-si to Accelerate Return to Normalcy by Restructuring COVID-19 Dedicated Department Functions

Support for Alleviating Home Treatment Anxiety through Establishment of Public Health Center Home Care Management Team

[Suncheon=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Suncheon City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Heo Seok) announced on the 3rd that it plans to expedite the phased recovery of daily life through thorough infectious disease management by reorganizing the Infectious Disease Management Division of the Public Health Center, which had been exclusively responding to COVID-19 infectious diseases.

In January, the city established the Infectious Disease Management Division, the first dedicated COVID-19 infectious disease department among local governments in Jeollanam-do, to proactively respond to confirmed cases in the community.

Through cooperation with local medical institutions and public-private partnerships, the city maintained a 24-hour monitoring and reporting system, operated four permanent screening clinics and 128 mobile screening stations, conducted over 390,000 proactive diagnostic tests, and managed more than 170,000 self-quarantined individuals.

Additionally, by conducting epidemiological investigations that were more stringent than the guidelines, the city worked to detect confirmed patients early and prevent the spread of infectious diseases within the community.

Along with these efforts, the vaccination completion rate exceeded 75%, and the number of confirmed cases, which had exceeded 100 per month until September, sharply dropped to around 20 cases after October.

Accordingly, as the city transitions to a quarantine system for phased daily life recovery, it reorganized the existing Infectious Disease Management Division to establish a Home Treatment Management Team.

The Home Treatment Management Team manages self-quarantined individuals and supports home treatment by monitoring asymptomatic confirmed cases to prevent symptom deterioration.

A public health center official said, “Until the day when citizens safely and perfectly recover their daily lives, we ask everyone to strictly adhere to basic quarantine rules, including mandatory indoor and outdoor mask-wearing for vaccinated individuals, regular ventilation, and prompt diagnostic testing.”

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