Lee Hyo-jin covers the Bank of Korea, the banking industry and broader financial news. Her previous beats include foreign affairs, North Korea and general reporting on Korean society.
Government in hot seat over detention facility management
Buses transporting inmates infected with COVID-19 depart from Seoul Dongbu Detention Center to Cheongsong correctional facility in North Gyeongsang Province, Monday. / Yonhap.
By Lee Hyo-jin
PM apologizes for mismanagement that resulted in massive infection cluster
By Lee Hyo-jin
The government is in the hot seat over a massive COVID-19 outbreak linked to a state-run detention center in Seoul, which may be attributable to lax management and belated responses.
The Seoul Dongbu Detention Center in eastern Seoul added 233 new confirmed patients for Monday after a third mass testing was conducted the previous day, bringing the total number to infected inmates and officers to 748, according to the Ministry of Justice, Tuesday.
The number is approximately 25 percent of the total 2,419 inmates and 425 staff members at the facility.
Although the source of the mass infection remains unknown, the facility reported its first confirmed case, a detention center officer, Nov. 27.
The authorities can hardly avoid criticism over their belated response as they only launched massive testing three weeks later, following another confirmed case, this time an inmate, Dec. 14.
The first round of testing conducted Dec. 18 found 187 confirmed patients, followed by another 288 from the second round of testing Dec. 23.
The health authorities acknowledged that the densely packed facility consisting of five 12-story buildings, where a maximum of seven inmates share one cell, resulted in the rapid spread of the virus.
“Unlike other detention centers equipped with yards, all activities of inmates at the Dongbu Detention Center are limited to indoors,” Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health official, said at a press briefing, Friday.
“The center was overcrowded with some 2,410 inmates, exceeding its full capacity of 2070. And as it lacks one-person cells, most of them had to share,” he added.
It was also revealed that the detainees had not been provided with masks until the first case was confirmed. They reportedly wore cotton masks or several people shared one mask.
The center transferred 345 inmates ― those with mild symptoms and those who were asymptomatic ― to Cheongsong Penitentiary in North Gyeongsang Province, Monday.
Response to the news, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun delivered an apology. “As the head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, I apologize for the massive outbreak at a state-run detention facility directly managed by the government,” he said at a meeting at the Government Complex Seoul.
Adding that the cluster was unlikely to lead to local transmissions as most of the confirmed cases were inmates, Chung ordered the justice ministry and health authorities to make all efforts to stem additional infections and come up with preventive measures.
Following mounting criticism over faltering COVID-19 fighting policies as well as lagging vaccine procurement plans, the government announced that it had secured vaccine doses for 20 million people from Moderna to be delivered starting in the second quarter of next year, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
The agreement, reached through a videoconference between President Moon Jae-in and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, has secured double the initially planned amount and sped up the supply plan, initially scheduled for the third quarter of next year. The two sides plan to sign the deal within this year, presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok said.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country reported 1,046 daily new cases for Monday, including 1,030 local infections, bringing the total caseload to 58,725. The daily death toll hit a national high of 40.