Seoul to phase out residential COVID-19 treatment centers by end of May
People wait in line for COVID-19 testing at a screening site in Songpa District, Seoul, March 4. The Seoul city government will phase out all its residential COVID-19 treatment centers across the capital by the end of this month. Yonhap
Seoul Metropolitan Government will phase out all its residential COVID-19 treatment centers across the capital by the end of this month amid the receding pandemic, according to local officials.
In their fight against COVID-19, Seoul and other regional governments operated residential treatment centers to quarantine and treat patients with mild cases.
Having downgraded the infectious disease level for COVID-19 by one notch to the second-highest level late last month, South Korea is now phasing out its social distancing rules to return to pre-pandemic normalcy.
"The city will shut down all its residential treatment centers in stages by May 31," Park Yoo-mi, a disease control official of the Seoul city government, said in a press briefing.
She said the city is devising "alternative" measures to handle asymptomatic or patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms, along with a contingency plan to be implemented in the event of a virus resurgence.
In line with the country's subsiding coronavirus infections, all but 25 COVID-19 test centers in Seoul will also be closed, Park said.
On Monday, the capital recorded 1,213 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest number in about four months. (Yonhap)