More Seoulites volunteer to test for virus

Students at Wadong Elementary School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, go through COVID-19 testing at the playground, Friday, as one of the students there was confirmed to be infected. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

Over 2,100 citizens of Seoul have applied for COVID-19 testing over a 10-day period even though they had no symptoms of the contagious disease, amid rising fears over the sporadic spread of infections that have continued to emerge in the densely populated capital since May, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Friday.

They are expressing concerns about possible infections spread by asymptomatic carriers.

The city said a total of 2,127 citizens have applied for the city's free COVID-19 diagnostic testing program as of Thursday, since the city began offering free testing on June 8.

Under the program, all residents of Seoul can receive coronavirus testing free of charge even if they have no respiratory symptoms ― they can apply for the program via the city government's website and get tested on a first-come-first-serve basis.

“We expect a maximum of 1,000 people to be able to get tested for the virus over a week in seven city hospitals,” Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said in a briefing at the time.

Previously, people without symptoms were required to pay about 80,000 won ($66) for the COVID-19 testing if the test produced a negative result.

The city introduced the free testing program as part of efforts to contain the “silent” transmission of the virus, at a time when concerns are growing over a second wave of infections.

The city government noted about 300 applicants have actually gone through the testing, with no confirmed cases reported so far.

A considerable number of applicants said they applied for the free testing program because they were “anxious,” rather than they had visited virus-affected areas or knew people infected with the virus, according to city officials.

According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), 49 new infections ― 32 local and 17 imported ― were detected Thursday, which raised the nation's total to 12,306. The death toll remained unchanged at 280.

Among the 32 local cases, 17 were from Seoul, while nine were from nearby Gyeonggi Province. Six were residents of the southern city of Daejeon.

The KCDC said later in the day that at least 24 patients were traced to three door-to-door sales companies in Daejeon, and six were linked to a local church as of noon Friday.

The latest infections in Daejeon are putting the health authorities on edge amid signs of infection clusters spreading to other parts of the country from the capital area.

“We have yet to find a connection between the infections that have emerged in Seoul and Daejeon,” KCDC Director Jung Eun-kyeong said in a media briefing. “We are currently working to analyze the genes of the virus.”