"COVID-19 Testing Booth Created from Civil Servants' Ideas, Flood of Overseas Export Requests"

Bidirectional Walk-Through Testing Booth

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[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] At the early stage of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) outbreak, An Yeohyun, a clerk at Busan Nam-gu Public Health Center, recognized the problems of the existing negative pressure tents and came up with a sealed booth concept. This booth created a negative pressure space inside a small booth where only patients enter, attaching protective gloves on the inside so that medical staff could insert their hands from outside the booth to collect specimens. She personally sketched the booth design and made a prototype using acrylic panels. After testing, she ordered and produced a 'glove box type testing booth (mobile negative pressure specimen collection booth)' through 'Labseed' located in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, and first introduced it for specimen collection starting in March. Going a step further, she also produced a 'two-way walking-through testing booth' capable of rapidly testing large numbers of people and applied it on site. The initially developed glove box type booth reduced testing time from the original one hour to 25 minutes, and the two-way walking-through model further reduced it to 15 minutes, enabling multiple specimen collections. Subsequently, as it spread to open screening clinics such as airports, export requests have been flooding in from various countries.

On the 26th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety selected five exemplary cases of proactive administration that led local innovative administration and enhanced crisis response capabilities by improving unreasonable regulations.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety selects exemplary cases of proactive administration each quarter that overcome administrative practices or constraints to lead regional economic revitalization, improve residents' quality of life, and create jobs, reflecting them in local government evaluations. This time, cases that attracted attention for innovative ideas and swift responses during the COVID-19 crisis were also included.

The exemplary cases selected in the first quarter of this year are ▲Mobile negative pressure specimen collection booths (glove box) and two-way walking-through booths that shortened COVID-19 testing time (Busan Nam-gu Public Health Center) ▲Development and distribution of a public delivery app (Gunsan, Jeonbuk) ▲Allowing personal mobility devices such as electric scooters on buses (Sejong) ▲Expansion of building materials for temporary structures (Gwangju, Gyeonggi) ▲Designation of nail art business as a simplified taxation category for business registration (Yuseong, Daejeon).

Among these, Gunsan City in Jeonbuk launched the public delivery app 'Baedal-ui Myeongsu' through active efforts including consultations with related ministries and legal advice, reducing the burden on small business owners and increasing the utilization of local love gift certificates.

Sejong City allowed conditional boarding of personal mobility devices such as kickboards and folding bicycles on buses, significantly lowering the weight limit from the previous 10 kg to 23 kg or less, reducing frequent disputes between transportation workers and passengers.

Gwangju City in Gyeonggi Province amended ordinances to add synthetic steel plates to the materials allowed for temporary structures, which were previously limited to tents and glass, reducing the periodic reinstallation costs for about 6,000 companies in the area.

Yuseong District in Daejeon separated nail art businesses, which had been grouped with luxury industries such as skin beauty services, allowing simplified taxation business registration. This is expected to reduce the tax burden on nail art business operators and lower the barriers for young entrepreneurs.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to widely publicize these exemplary cases through local government websites, the Regulatory Information Portal, blogs, and Twitter.

Ko Gyu-chang, Director of the Local Finance and Economy Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "We hope that the proactive administration cases promoted by local government officials at the forefront of administrative services will spread to all local governments, solving inconveniences in citizens' daily lives and addressing difficulties faced by local businesses, leading to better regulatory innovation."

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