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| A health worker at a temporary COVID-19 testing center in front of Seoul Station in Jung District takes a nasal swab sampling from a visitor, Thursday. Yonhap |
Temporary coronavirus testing centers now in operation throughout the greater Seoul area have contributed greatly to detecting hidden infections, officials said Thursday, announcing as many as 150 cases were confirmed through their testing the previous day alone.
According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, 58,091 people were tested by the makeshift screening facilities Wednesday and 150 of them were diagnosed with COVID-19.
Patients detected this way accounted for 15.7 percent of all new daily COVID-19 cases reported by Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi Province and Incheon on the day, the agency noted.
As a result, the cumulative number of coronavirus cases detected by about 150 temporary testing centers, which began operations on Dec. 14 for three weeks, rose to 904, it said.
Earlier this week, the Seoul city government said 1 in 4 new daily COVID-19 cases in the capital were confirmed through the street testing.
Encouraged by the preemptive testing results, the Seoul government has also launched the operation of a mobile screening center tasked with conducting preemptive tests on vulnerable groups at their work and residential places.
The mobile testing center capable of carrying out about 1,000 tests a day began its operation Wednesday at a logistics center in southern Seoul, where about 8,000 delivery workers are on duty.
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