Only after it has spread, total inspection…1062 confirmed by embarrassment measures

“Like procrastination inspection and mingling acceptance, absurd initial response that violated the quarantine rules, quiet propagator, and three-mil structure provoked the corona disaster in the eastern detention center.”

It is the three major factors of the corona 19 catastrophe at the eastern detention center in Seoul, diagnosed by prisoners, detention center medical staff and external experts. Of these, it was counted as the biggest cause of the unprecedented collective infection that the entire prisoners were tested only on December 18, three weeks after the first employee confirmed on November 27 last year.

This is because it was a poor response that forgot the first principle of quarantine, which was to quickly isolate the confirmed and contacts through early examination, and as a result, it caused mass infection by mixing suspected patients, contacts, and general prisoners.

The Ministry of Justice conducted PCR (gene amplification) tests on only 499 people, including 201 co-workers and 298 prisoners, who had contacted the infected employee on November 28 last year, the day after the initial diagnosis, and as a result, 11 additional employees were found to be confirmed. Considering that the employees have worked around five buildings, all of the prisoners were potential contacts.

Nevertheless, quarantine and segregation of contacts for detainees other than the measures to isolate the confirmed and “close” contacts in the staff for more than 20 days were not strictly carried out.

Accordingly, the correctional headquarters of the Ministry of Justice said, “In a situation where 2413 people (116.6%), which far exceeded the initial limit of infection (2,070 people), were overcrowded, there was not enough space to separate the confirmed patients, contacts, and non-contact people. I had to separate only very little,” he explained.

This is because there were only 432 living rooms in the eastern detention center that could contain one prisoner per person. There are 376 separate living (shared) rooms for the remaining 3 to 8 people. This situation became more serious after 185 people were confirmed at the first full test on December 18 and 298 were confirmed in the second round on the 23rd of the same month. The number of confirmed patients exceeded the number of rooms living alone, and the situation occurred for at least 10 days to jointly accommodate the confirmed and contacted, and contacted and non-contact. The Ministry of Justice transferred 345 asymptomatic and mild prisoners out of the confirmed cases to the second prison in North Gyeongsang Province (Cheongsong) only on December 28th.

As a result, it took only 36 days to spread to 1062 (including 22 employees) after one first employee infected.

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and the correctional headquarters said, “At the time of admission, asymptomatic new prisoners, that is, silent radio broadcasters, were also the cause of the mass infection.” This claim, Lee Jae-gap, a professor of infectious medicine at Hallym University’s Gangnam Sacred Hospital, who visited Dongbu detention center on the 25th of last month, said, “The factors of infection are judged as a combination, but the possibility of the spread of infection by asymptomatic new prisoners after the third pandemic of Corona 19 seems greater. It was presented by the side.

Minister Chu Mi-ae also said in an apology posted on Facebook on January 1, 35 days after the outbreak, “The cause of the rapid group infection is presumed mainly to be a new prisoner who is asymptomatic after the third pandemic.” I accepted it, but there were no symptoms and it was not filtered. It means that a group infection occurred at a rapid rate as the asymptomatic infected person was housed in the living room in a closed detention center.

However, there are criticisms that the quarantine principle inside the detention center has not been observed, such as the inmates claiming that the prisoner had been co-detained within 10 days without filling the 14 days of quarantine period.

Group infection? Because of the three-mil structure
Dongbu Detention Center is a 12-story apartment-type detention center built in 2017. It is a structure similar to a’closed castle’ in which 5 buildings are connected. The typical dense, tightly sealed’three-mild structure’ with a single air conditioning and heating ventilation system is considered the cause of the third disaster. It is the same situation as the outbreak of group infection in private nursing hospitals.

Unlike other low-rise correctional facilities where outdoor activities are possible, all life, such as cooking and exercise, takes place indoors. Since the playground is an enclosed space in which only a window on one wall can be opened, ventilation is difficult, making it vulnerable to COVID-19 prevention.

According to the correctional facility officials, the facility has an average of 5 zones for each floor of the building, with an average of 15-20 rooms per zone. Considering that 5 buildings on each floor, from the 2nd basement to the 12th floor above the ground, are connected by an internal corridor, it is a structure that is easy to spread infectious diseases. In fact, on the 19th of last month, when 187 confirmed cases were poured out in the eastern detention center, 115 confirmed cases were found only on the 8th floor.

The problem is that there are three more detention centers in the form of high-rise buildings in addition to the eastern detention center. The Suwon Detention Center (9 stories above ground, 1 basement level), opened in 1996, Incheon Detention Center (12 stories above ground, 2 basement levels) and Daegu Detention Center (10 stories above ground, 1 basement level), which opened in 1997 and 1999, are also downtown. It is an apartment-type detention center. This is because Japan introduced the Nagoya detention center (12th floor) completed in 1983 as a model as a model for complaints and overcrowding of hate facilities.

An official of correctional facilities said, “Because you can walk on stairs at a time difference in lower-rise correctional facilities, you can keep social distancing, but high-rise correctional facilities are different,” he said. “It is a vulnerable environment that moves with the same elevator in overcrowded conditions.” Suwon, Incheon, and Daegu detention centers have not reported any infections, but they have not been fully tested.

Eun-mi Chun, a professor of respiratory medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, said, “Families living in joint life have five times higher infection power.” He pointed out that “when the first confirmed person came out was a precursor to the group infection, there is no excuse for not performing a full test.” He said, “It is an uncontrollable situation due to the failure of initial response in a situation where 2000 people lived in a closed space,” he said. “It is also not understood that the new prisoners were quarantined and accepted without a negative test.”

Kim Mo-ran, a professor of preventive medicine at the National Cancer Center, said, “The fact that we have not yet clearly explained the first transmission link means that we don’t even know how many cases the confirmed person is infected,” he said. Pointed out.

Choi Won-seok, a professor of infectious medicine at Korea University Ansan Hospital, said, “There is a possibility that multiple confirmed patients were introduced rather than a group infection was carried out by one person. In this case, follow-up measures are important because not all patients are asymptomatic. It seems that there is a regrettable point.”

Reporters Park Hyun-joo and Chae Hye-seon [email protected]