Press Release

Board View

(Joint-Reference) Regular Briefing from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters on COVID-19

Date:
2020-02-25
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- ▲Current status of response to Daegu·Gyeongbuk ▲ Ways to support medical facilities for COVID-19 response ▲Inspection of isolation wards in mental hospitals ▲Code of conduct for general public ▲Temporary suspension of the odd-even scheme for cars owned by public organizations ▲Exclusion of disposable products from regulation - 


Today, Kim Gang-lib, the 1st General Coordinator of the Central Disaster Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, (Vice Minister of Health and Welfare) presided a pan-governmental meeting at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters ('the Headquarters') on COVID-19 (Head: Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun) to discuss the following: ▲Current status of response and support to Daegu·Gyeongbuk ▲Ways to support medical facilities for COVID-19 response ▲ Inspection of isolation wards in mental hospitals ▲ Code of conduct for the general public ▲ Temporary suspension of the odd-even scheme for cars owned by public organizations ▲Exclusion of disposable products from regulation ▲Current utilization status of the self-monitoring app


1. Current status of response and support to Daegu·Gyeongbuk 


The Headquarters is implementing every measure available to prevent local infections in consideration of the increase of ed cases in Daegu and Gyeongbuk.


As of February 25th, 47 negative-pressure rooms among the total 63 negative-pressure rooms within the jurisdiction of Daegu and 430 beds of Daegu Medical Center and Daegu Dongsan Hospital are being used for COVID-19 response. In addition, about 1,600 extra beds will be secured by transferring the patients currently hospitalized in the newly designated national infectious disease hospitals: Korea Labor Welfare Corporation Daegu Hospital, Daegu Veterans Hospital, Armed Forces Daegu Hospital, and Masan National Tuberculosis Hospital. 


- Considering the possibility of bed shortages, local medical centers nearby have been designated as community treatment centers, and local hospitals are securing about 870 extra beds by transferring their patients to those centers.


To alleviate the shortage of medical workers in Daegu, the government sent 24 public health doctors on February 22nd, 51 public health doctors and 10 nurses on February 20th for sample collection and diagnosis, and 38 doctors, 59 nurses, two radiology technologists, and two clinical psychologists on February 23rd for the operation of national infectious disease hospitals. 


The Headquarters also announced its dedication to stabilizing COVID-19 in Daegu as soon as possible. Securing temporary triage rooms, focusing on the resources for diagnosis, and screening everyone showing symptoms in Daegu will be the main goals of this process.


Meanwhile, the medical centers in Andong, Pohang, Gimcheon, and Uljin-gun, and Sangju and Yeongju Red Cross Hospitals in Gyeongbuk were designated as national infectious disease hospitals (on February 21st and 23rd). The hospitals will secure more beds by transferring their patients.


To support the operation of Cheongdo Daenam Hospital in Gyeongbuk, the government sent one doctor on February 22nd and four public health doctors on February 24th.


2. Screening test for every Shincheonji member


The Headquarters announced that the Shincheonji Church of Jesus agreed to provide a list of all of its members and contacts.


The Headquarters persuaded Shincheonji that their cooperation was necessary to protect public health and safety. In return, the Church requested measures to prevent the leakage of private information and protect the provided information.


Shincheonji Church will submit the lists of its members who live in other regions and visited Daegu Shincheonji Church during January and February of 2020, as well as their members who are classified as high-risk, who went to Daegu Shincheonji Church, and who visited other regions during the same period. The Church will also submit its entire member list in due time.


Once the lists are submitted, the Headquarters will distribute them to local governments and to every health center nationwide, and conduct screening tests for every Shincheonji member registered in each region.


The Headquarters ensured that the screening will be finished swiftly, and the interim results will be released transparently.


3. Ways to support medical facilities for COVID-19 response


To provide assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak, the Headquarters announced the support plan for medical facilities on February 19th, including ▲Special provision for early payment of health insurance benefits ▲Deferring the report of manpower/facilities related to the differential medical fee system ▲Delaying the time for intensive brain and cerebrovascular MRI review


Additionally, the government announced extra measures based on the suggestions of the Korean Hospital Association, including changes to the criteria for applying the national health insurance system to the situation, and postponing the review and assessment regarding the payment of national health insurance.


First of all, the diagnostic tests and emergency cares conducted in triage rooms by the medical staff of emergency medical centers after 6 p.m. on weekdays, during the night, or on holidays will be covered by the emergency medical charge scheme (starting from February 17th).


- Influenza A and B antigen tests conducted in triage rooms will be temporarily covered by a selective reimbursement coverage schedule (patients pay 50% of the total fee) (starting from February 17th).


Particularly, the COVID-19 related medical service fee charged by hospitals operating triage rooms or treating COVID-19 will be exempted from the review of the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, and a minimized review will be applied to their other service fee charges. 


4. Operation of National Safe Hospitals


As a follow-up measure of the COVID-19 Community Infection Response Strategy, the Headquarters announced that 'National Safe Hospitals' will be designated on February 21st to ensure confident care for the people.


National Safe Hospitals provide designated treatment zones for respiratory disease patients (for both visiting and hospitalization) separated from non-respiratory disease patients to prevent hospital infection.


National Safe Hospitals carry out high-level infection prevention and management activities, including visitor control and thorough protection for medical workers.


Any medical facility (hospitals or higher-level facilities) can apply for the designation by separating the moving lines of respiratory disease patients visiting from outside (type A), or operating hospital rooms including triage rooms or respiratory disease wards (type B).


The national insurance applies the infection prevention management fees for National Safe Hospitals to the respiratory cases (visit or hospitalized) and diagnosis conducted in triage rooms (20,000 won). Quarantine management fees in triage rooms* as well as other special measures will be applied as well.

* (General isolation) 38,000 to 49,000 won, (pressure room isolation) 126,000 to 164,000 won


The government (Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service) and the Korean Hospital Association will form a joint inspection group to continuously monitor National Safe Hospitals' compliance to relevant requirements.


Applications for National Safe Hospitals will start from February 24th by the Korean Hospital Association. The system will be swiftly applied once the applicants have completed the required preparations, and the list of National Safe Hospitals will be released on the websites of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korean Hospital Association, and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in real-time. 


The representatives of Korean hospitals agreed to extend participations in the National Safe Hospitals system, and actively cooperate with the government to secure the maximum participation rate.


Finally, the Headquarters encouraged the patients with cancer, heart disease or other diseases other than respiratory disease to visit National Safe Hospitals without worrying about COVID-19.


5. Inspection of isolation wards in mental hospitals 


The Headquarters is conducting nationwide inspection of every isolation ward in mental hospitals for two days (February 24th and 25th) with local governments to find out the hospitals' infection management status, including the exclusion of ward workers and restrictions on external visitors.


Following the inspection of nursing hospitals conducted last week, the Headquarters will conduct inspection of the isolation wards of 420 mental hospitals nationwide to find out the following information and make corrections if necessary: ▲travel history of all closed ward workers in the countries subject to special immigration procedures, such as China, ▲exclusion of the ward workers travelled in the countries at risk of COVID-19, and if not excluded, lists of the workers ▲existence of the pneumonia patients in the isolation wards and treatments applied to them, and ▲ restrictions on external visitors.


This inspection is being conducted by s to limit the access of outsiders, because of the wards' vulnerability to infections disease. 


6. Recruitment of medical workers to volunteer for diagnosis and treatment


The Headquarters is recruiting medical workers to volunteer for early diagnosis and treatment to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Daegu since February 24th (Monday).


The Headquarters announced that 58 medical workers (five doctors, 32 nurses, eight nursing assistants, three medical technologists, 10 administrative staff) volunteered as of February 25th 9 a.m., and expressed gratitude for active participation and support.


The government is preparing measures to prevent local infections as much as possible by expanding the targets of COVID-19 screening inspection in Daegu from people in high-risk groups, including the participants of Shincheonji meetings and the people who contacted them to the people showing normal cold symptoms.


To this end, the government announced that medical workers for sample collection* are required at this stage.


* Each unit of a temporary triage room consists in a team of one doctor, three sample collectors (nurse, nursing assistant, clinical pathologist, etc.), one administrative staff, and one member applying preventive measures (disinfection). Therefore, application as a group is preferable, but individuals can apply as well.

The Headquarters asked for active participation from medical workers, emphasizing that financial compensation will be given to medical workers participating in the COVID-19 screening inspections in Daegu, and other ways to thank their dedication to the local society will be considered as well.


* Financial damage from the suspension of medical facility operations, various costs required for medical activities, etc.


The medical workers who want to participate can apply by filling in the following content (attachment 1) and submitting it via e-mail. The rest of the process will be notified later in accordance with predetermined procedures.


◈ Contents (refer to the form in attachment 1)  ①	 Name, ② occupation (e.g. doctor, nurse, etc.) ③ Specialization (e.g. internal medicine, pediatrics, etc.), ④ Affiliated organization/department/address, ⑤ Phone number (both office and cell phone), ⑥ Available period  ◈ Contact: Kim Young-mi, Deputy Director, Second Special Planning Team, Central Disaster Management Headquarters, Ministry of Health and Welfare (☎ 044-202-3247, kymrs1031@korea.kr) 


7. Code of conduct for the general public


Since the infectious disease was raised to the highest level, the Headquarters distributes the code of conduct for the general public (general public, high risk groups, people showing symptoms, and people living in the areas of COVID-19 infection) and new guidance to prevent infection.


The general public must wash their hands frequently, cough on their sleeves, and must not touch their eyes, noses and mouths with unwashed hands. They must put on masks when visiting medical facilities, must not visit crowded places, and must not have contact with people showing symptoms of fever or respiratory disease.


Pregnant women, elderly who are 65 or older, and chronically ill people must not visit crowded places, and must put on masks when they have to visit medical facilities.


People showing symptoms of fever or respiratory disease are advised to not go to school or work, not go outside, and stay at home for three to four days to watch for the development of symptoms. Also, people who experience a continuing fever (38℃ or higher) or worsening symptoms must ① call designated call centers (☎1339, ☎local numbers+120) or local health centers ② or visit a near triage room for diagnosis.


The Headquarters asked that the people living in the special infectious disease control regions must not go outside or visit other regions, and the people in self-isolation must follow orders from medical staff or quarantine officials and abide by the rules of self-isolation.


Also, the training period for the dedicated members to calculate the safety management fee for hospitalized patients will be temporarily postponed for COVID-19 response (February 19th).


- The implementation of the Comprehensive Nursing Service (14 institutes) and the report on the individual participants of the projects will be postponed after COVID-19 response.

- Furthermore, the planned survey on sanatoriums will be temporarily postponed after COVID-19 response. 

- The assessment of medical care expenses regarding the proactive use of antibiotics for surgery will be postponed (April to June → July to September) to allow medical facilities to focus on COVID-19 response.


Also, in order to efficiently utilize the facility, manpower, and equipment of emergency medical treatment centers, the assessment on the use of the items in responding COVID-19 will not be the subjects of disadvantageous actions in the future assessments.



8. Temporary suspension of the odd-even scheme for all-out response to COVID-19


To proactively prevent the spreading of COVID-19 and minimize local infection, the Ministry of Environment (Minister Cho Myung-rae) announced a temporary suspension of the odd-even scheme for the cars owned by public organizations, which was implemented to Seoul Capital Area and six metropolitan cities* from February 25th, 2020.

* National and public organizations in Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon, Ulsan, and Sejong


The scheme was introduced to lead the protection of public health from December to March, the period of high fine dust concentration, according to the Special Plan for High Fine Dust Concentration Periods established in November 2019. 


As the infectious disease was raised to its highest level based on the nationwide increase of the ed cases of COVID-19, the government decided to suspend the scheme until the end of the outbreak to reduce the possibility of local infection and focus public organizations' resources on all-out response, including accident management and quarantine activities.


9. Exemption of disposable cups from regulation


The Headquarters announced that disposable products are exempted from regulation as the infectious disease was raised to its highest level.


According to the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety, the regulation on disposable products used in restaurants can be temporarily exempted, if the infectious disease level is ' ' or higher.


- Upon the announcement of the ' ' level on January 27th, the use of disposable products in ports and airports, KTX and other types of train stations and the rest of areas of frequent domestic and international transit was allowed temporarily under the decision of the heads of local governments. 


However, infectious disease was raised to its highest level on February 23rd and the infection has entered the early local infection stage.


- Therefore, the use of disposable products is now allowed in every area, and each local government has been notified to allow it under their own situations (February 24th). 


10. Current utilization status of the self-monitoring app


As of February 24th, the number of the entrants under special permit from China (including Hong Kong and Macao) is about 60,000. 85 percent of them have installed self-monitoring application, and 90 percent of the people installed the app are answering questions via the app.


416 of them answered that they had relevant symptoms, 87 among them were found necessary to be checked after phone interviews with health centers, and none of the entrants was tested positive for COVID-19.


<Management status of the entrants under special permit (February 24th)  />  Number of entrants: 58,969  App installed: 83.9%  Answering rate: 89.4%  Number of cases showing symptoms: 416  Number of entrants tested: 87*  * 87 entrants showing symptoms and accepted testing were tested, 83 were found negative, 4 are being tested
 

The special entrance procedure has been introduced for the tracking management of the entrants under special permit by their identities and securing valid contacts. Every entrant under special permit is being managed regarding COVID-19 symptoms either via the app, or phone calls from the call center if they did not install the app or answer via the app.


The entrants consistently not answering are under further managements including inducing their self-diagnosis by warning messages or requesting the Korean National Police Agency to find out their whereabouts.