Jiyeongmi, Director of KDCA, "Establish Detailed Implementation Plan for New Infectious Diseases in the First Half of the Year"

Announcement of '6 Core Tasks' Through New Year's Address
Establishing a Response System for 1 Million Daily Infections

Jiyoungmi, the Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, announced on the 2nd that a detailed implementation plan will be established within the first half of this year to prepare for new infectious diseases, and that thorough measures will be taken for the continuous management of infectious diseases. The plan aims to establish a quarantine system capable of responding to up to 1 million new infectious disease patients per day.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Commissioner Ji stated this in her New Year's address while announcing this year's '6 Core Tasks.'

Commissioner Ji diagnosed, "Tomorrow we face holds the coexistence of various health crisis possibilities such as new pandemics, climate change, and continuous infectious diseases. Due to population aging, everyday health risks that increase the disease burden on the public, such as chronic diseases and injuries, are always lurking."

She added, "Above all, we will establish detailed implementation plans for the five areas (surveillance and prevention, preparedness and response, recovery, infrastructure, research and development) of the mid- to long-term plan for new infectious disease preparedness established last May within the first half of the year and systematically carry them out. We will lead efforts to induce inter-ministerial cooperation to secure a resilient and flexible medical and quarantine system capable of responding to '1 million new infectious disease patients per day' in the future." She also said, "We will tackle tasks one by one, such as establishing infectious disease specialized hospitals and flexible health care workforce acquisition plans to build a regional and zonal infectious disease response system."

Along with this, she said, "We will make every effort to manage continuous infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, viral hepatitis eradication, antibiotic resistance, and prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. According to the '2nd Malaria Re-eradication Strategy' to be announced this year, we will implement effective strategies to achieve the eradication of malaria in Korea as soon as possible."

The Disease Control and Prevention Agency plans to officially launch the integrated quarantine information system on this day and build and operate an infectious disease big data platform within the first half of the year.

Commissioner Ji said, "We will make greater efforts to link and integrate data so that evidence-based infectious disease and health policies can be established and to open the data for active use by the private sector."

She also promised, "Based on the 'Injury Prevention and Control Act,' the first law enacted by the Disease Control and Prevention Agency, we will systematically fulfill the agency's role and clearly establish its functions and roles regarding chronic diseases, rare diseases, and various health risk factors throughout the year."

Furthermore, she said, "We will steadily proceed with the core research and development projects and infrastructure construction of the National Institute of Health," and added, "We will also activate the global health security network."

Commissioner Ji emphasized, "We will accompany the public in their daily lives to ensure the health of our people continues and find better answers together in the field of public livelihood."

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