Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Namyangju factory with foreign workers emerges as virus hotbed
People stand in line for COVID-19 testing at a temporary screening station set up in an industrial complex in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Over 100 workers have been infected with COVID-19 at a plastic manufacturing plant located in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, putting the health authorities on high alert over another large infection cluster.
According to the Namyangju city government, Thursday, 123 people linked to the plant in the city's Jingwan Industrial Complex, about 40 kilometers from Seoul, have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Of them, 119 are workers at the factory, three are family members of the workers, and one is an employee at another factory there. Among the 119, 110 are migrant workers from 17 countries, and most of them have lived as well as dined together at the company dormitory.
All workers at the plant were tested following an employee from Cambodia testing positive at a hospital in central Seoul last Saturday after developing a fever.
Fears of community transmission have grown as many of the foreign employees had social gatherings outside of the plant during last week's Lunar New Year holiday.
In addition, two migrant workers at the plant have not returned to work since the holiday ― the health authorities are trying to locate them.
The factory has been temporarily closed, while 1,200 people working at other factories in the industrial complex have been tested.
“The mass infection took place as they worked together in close proximity in a small space, and some did not wear face masks properly. Additionally, the migrant workers shared a dorm,” Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said in a virus response meeting Thursday.
He said the government would conduct pre-emptive intensive inspections on workplaces and plants where workers are in close proximity to each other and where there are many foreign employees.
“We will continue to publicize quarantine rules to foreign workers through support centers for them, communities of foreign residents, and 16 embassies in Seoul for countries where migrant workers come from to Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS),” Kwon said.
The Gyeonggi Province Government also said it has been looking into the detailed travel routes of the infected workers and others in the area who may have come into contact with them.
Along with the factory-related cases, the country's daily new virus cases stayed over 600 for a second consecutive day, with 621 confirmed infections for Wednesday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The health authorities remain vigilant as the latest uptick can be a sign of another big outbreak after the holiday season. The third wave in Korea, which began in mid-November last year, was showing a gradual decline after hitting a peak Dec. 25 when 1,240 cases were reported, but the daily caseload has risen again recently due to a series of infection clusters.