Ministry of Health and Welfare

Regular briefing of the Central Incidence Management System for Novel Coronavirus Infection

- Delivering guidelines for employees at public facilities, etc., who visited China, etc. -

□ The Central Incidence Management System for Novel Coronavirus Infection (IMS headed by Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo) announced that it delivered guidelines for employees at public facilities, medical institutions, etc., such as paid caregivers for patients, who recently visited China through local government bodies and public institutions in consideration of the public's rising concerns.

○ The gist of the guidelines is about allowing those employees who visited Hubei (where Wuhan is located) to go on leave from work for 14 days from their entry into Korea. The guidelines also recommend taking the same measure for employees who visited elsewhere in China, reinforcing related education, and restricting the entry of unnecessary visitors.

○ These guidelines were distributed through local government bodies, associations, and institutions related to seniors, children and infants, and people with disabilities. IMS plans to closely supervise and monitor their implementation while continuing to promote these guidelines on a governmental level.

□ The government is also determined to aggressively respond to market-disturbing moves including price hiking with the sales of related products such as masks continually rising after the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus. Inspections of mask production and distribution procedures and sites will be conducted in collaboration with all relevant ministries from today onwards.
*The conference of relevant ministries to review and respond to the quasi-drug market held on January 30
(organized by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and attended by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Fair Trade Commission, and National Tax Service)

○ Starting from February, the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency plans to provide 720,000 masks to construction, manufacturing, and service industry workplaces deemed more vulnerable to infectious diseases, etc., as they employ or are visited by large numbers of foreign employees.

□ The government plans to request a police investigation into the leak and spread of documents containing personal information* of confirmed patients online yesterday. It will stringently respond to any leak of personal information in the future.
*The documents contain part of the names of a confirmed patient and one of the persons the patient came into contact with as well as their ages and locations of residence.

○ Regarding the transportation of Korean citizens returning from Wuhan that starts today, IMS requested the press to be discreet in related reporting so as not to infringe upon the human rights and privacy of these citizens and their families.