Jeonnam Province and City-County Governments Launch All-Out Effort to Combat COVID-19 in High-Risk Facilities

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province is making an all-out effort to respond to COVID-19 targeting high-risk facilities in cooperation with cities and counties.

According to the province on the 21st, a total of 426 confirmed cases occurred at 95 elderly care, day and night care, and short-term protection facilities in the Jeonnam area from the 1st to the 18th of this month.

As mass infections frequently occurred in high-risk facilities such as nursing homes and hospitals, a countermeasure meeting was held chaired by the Deputy Governor with vice heads of cities and counties attending.

The attendees shared the current status of COVID-19 occurrences and the progress of quarantine measures for each high-risk facility and discussed response plans.

The province judged the main causes of mass infections to be inadequate management of the PCR test registry for workers, decreased vaccine effectiveness over time after the third dose, close contact among patients, and insufficient ventilation, and decided to implement countermeasures.

First, management of workers at nursing homes and hospitals will be strengthened. Proactive testing such as twice-weekly PCR tests and twice-weekly rapid antigen tests for workers will be conducted at three-day intervals, and individual management registries will be inspected.

To block infections caused by external activities, work attendance will be reinforced by strongly recommending workers to refrain from using multi-use facilities.

The province will also encourage the fourth vaccination for inpatients at nursing homes and hospitals and Novavax vaccination for unvaccinated individuals.

For inpatients, two PCR tests are mandatory upon new admission, followed by a quarantine period. Entry of outsiders into the facility will be restricted, and outings or overnight stays except for essential outpatient treatment will be prohibited, along with banning contact visits.

Additionally, medical institutions for home treatment management of elderly care facilities will be pre-designated, and patient management equivalent to the intensive care group for home treatment will be implemented when confirmed cases occur.

Emergency response consultative bodies for facility cluster infections will be operated by city and county, establishing emergency contact networks for each institution’s person in charge. If confirmed cases occur in facilities, detailed transfer plans will be established and implemented immediately.

Each facility will be matched one-on-one with a responsible public official to conduct daily checks on ventilation, disinfection, individual management registries, and maintain reporting systems.

A Jeonnam Province official said, “We will manage individual proactive test records and thoroughly review management registries to respond to COVID-19,” adding, “Please strictly manage each facility, including periodic ventilation to block infections, to prevent confirmed cases.”

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