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Today (19th), the number of new coronavirus confirmed cases is expected to exceed 500.
The problem is that large-scale group infections continue in certain facilities.
The quarantine authorities have decided to do everything they can to prevent group infections, including claiming remedy.
This is Lee Hyun-young.
<Reporter> There
were 495 new confirmed cases counted by 9 o'clock last night.
Accordingly, today's new confirmed cases are expected to be less than 600.
However, with more than 600 confirmed cases coming out for two consecutive days until yesterday, the average number of confirmed cases per day in Korea has increased by nearly 50 over the past week.
It is group infection from large-scale workplaces that is driving this recent spread.
At the plastic factory in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, where the first confirmed person was confirmed on the 13th, 121 additional people, including employees and families, were infected, and the number of confirmed cases increased to 135 at the heater manufacturing plant in Asan, Chungnam, which started with one employee on the 13th.
In addition, Seoul Soonchunhyang University Hospital decided to stop outpatient treatment until the day after the number of related confirmed patients continued to increase to 171.
This year, 52 cases and 1,362 cases of group infections occurred in large-scale workplaces were confirmed.
The quarantine authorities believe that even though it is a closed and dense work environment, they do not wear masks properly, or workers lived in shared dormitories, resulting in group infections.
Accordingly, the government is planning to charge treatment and quarantine expenses at workplaces where group infections have occurred due to violation of quarantine regulations, and to conduct preemptive inspections for poor workplaces where workers live in group dormitories in narrow spaces or where ventilation or disinfection is difficult.