시사&소설

Jeju had visitors as many as 196,138 during the golden week from April 29th till May 5th this year, Jeju Economy reported on Wednesday.
This is a reboost considering the decreasing numbers in the previous 3 months. But it is very sharp fall as much as 37.8% from the same month last year when had 315,186 visitors, it pointed out.
This is because of the coronavirus pandemic, it analyzed, as January saw 10.5% increase from January 2019, just before the outbreak.
As positive points like no new cases over 3 weeks and the first patient, who has been treated in hospital lomgest, was dischared, and negative i.e. the big wave of tourists may result in the second wave and schools reopen coexist, the coming 2 weeks or a month will be quite critical for the covid19 quarantine in Jeju.
Jeju officially announced that it will keep intensive 'social distancing' rule longer till May 18th to prevent community infection from happening, two days ago.

 Wow! It has been 13 days since Jeju had its 13th case of coronavirus confirmed on April 13th. This marks it again(!) as one of the safest place in South Korea from COVID-19. It is considered coronavirus-free for keeping '0' infection in 14 days. The 13th patient was allowed to return home on April 26th afternoon, according to Jeju.

 Jeju made the first history on March 18th when was the 14th day since the 4th patient tested positive on March 4th. It was broken on March 24th, when a couple was revealed to be infected after returning from Spain.

 This can make people feel secured from the global crisis though another fear is closing in. And, that is the coming 'golden week' starting from April 30th, Buddha's Birthday, till May 5th, Children's Day. JTA(Jeju Tourism Association) is expecting as many as 180 thousand tourists will visit Jeju.

 More worries are from the 2 cases of the 1st & the 6th patient, who were re-hospitalized after being discharged as they got resulted in coronavirus negative. Some has been treated in-house for over 14 days, e.g. the 5th was still in bed after she was transferred to hospital on March 24th.

 With a knife above the head, Jeju authorities are trying to put best efforts to prevent the virus from being spread all over during and after the golden week. As a countermeasure, they designed special procedures for entry to Jeju Island. The detailed is as below:

(Already in preactice)

1. Onboard notice through announcement, compulsory report of overseas travelers, tests in coordination with public health centers, etc.

2. Walk-through clinic for managing overseas travelers.

(Newly introducing, of which purpose is widening suspicious testees to domestic visitors)

3. Abnormal body temperature down to 37.3℃ from 37.5℃.

3-1. In case one is diagnosed suspicious, he or she will be requested to write a health question form, and then, if necessary, to go to the walk-through clinic to be tested.

4. Jeju will set up more thorough system to check body temperature of every person one by one.

5. Jeju will make all people fall in a line, keeping 1-meter-away rule, etc.

6. Jeju will also proceed new operaional system of the walk-through clinic as it adds 2 multi-purpose negative/positive pressure sample collection booths, aka ultrafast walk-through.

6-1. An ultrafast walk-through clinic is a one-person test facility, which is safe and in capable of quick tests. It also has advantages because it doesn't require of medical staff putting on level-D safety equipment or disinfecting the inside.

7. Jeju Airport Company and airline companies will give more announcements of Special Procedures of Entry Season 2 and COVID-19 Sanitation Rules.

7-1. They will make best use of flight reservation text messages, messengers, and put up more banners for information.