Mokpo City Establishes Proactive Response System to Address New Semester COVID-19 Spread Concerns

Discussion on Countermeasures Through Meetings with Related Organizations and School Principals

Mokpo City Supported COVID-19 Prevention Supplies in Preparation for March School Opening. Photo by Mokpo City

[Mokpo=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Jeong Seunghyun] On the 17th, Mokpo City in Jeollanam-do announced that it is making every effort to establish a proactive response system to prevent the spread of COVID-19 due to school attendance in the new semester in March.

The city held a meeting with the Mokpo City Office of Education, the president of the Parents' Association Federation, and representatives of elementary school principals to discuss a proactive COVID-19 response system for students under the age of 12 due to the start of the school year.

The COVID-19 vaccination target for adolescents is ages 12 to 17, and elementary school students under 12 are excluded from the vaccination target. Students must test negative on rapid antigen tests to attend school, and if positive, they must undergo additional testing at a nearby PCR testing center.

Currently, the principal is responsible for rapid antigen testing and contact classification at schools, confirming the range of contacts and rapid antigen test results at the school and reporting them to the quarantine authorities.

Accordingly, the city plans to promptly operate mobile screening clinics for PCR testing when symptomatic cases occur at each school as a proactive measure, and conduct comprehensive testing when confirmed cases arise to block further infection spread.

With over 90,000 people on average per day currently and a rapid increase in COVID-19 confirmed cases, the city plans to establish an emergency contact system with quarantine staff from related organizations to secure self-test kits and inspect school quarantine conditions. The Office of Education will continue efforts to prevent infectious diseases in schools, including compliance with quarantine rules such as temperature checks and mask-wearing during school attendance, and regular self-testing.

A city official stated, “We will do our best to ensure that students can safely attend school by gathering the consensus of principals, teachers, and parents.”

Meanwhile, in January, as confirmed cases continued to increase, the city recommended temporary closure of academies and private tutoring centers to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and on the 10th of this month, supported 100,000 masks and 1,000 hand sanitizers to 400 academies that participated in the closure.

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