MASSIVE OUTBREAK AT DETENTION CENTER

[Anchor Lead]

As the nation again reported a single-day increase of over 1,000, the mass COVID-19 outbreak at Dongbu Detention Center in Seoul is continuing to swell. 233 inmates tested positive in a third round of center-wide testing on Monday. Some of the center’s infected inmates have been transferred to a correctional facility in Cheongsong, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province.

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The Dongbu Detention Center in Seoul reported 233 more COVID-19 cases after conducting a third round of testing on all of its 1,600 inmates. Test results for 31 inmates are yet to come out. Infected patients with no or mild symptoms were transferred to a correctional facility in Cheongsong, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province on Monday. This was done to free up space in the Dongbu center and help block the further spread of the virus. During the transportation, the bus driver was wearing a level-D medical protective suit, while the inmates were given high-performance KF-94 masks and latex gloves. In order to prevent transmissions through saliva droplets, the bus’ heating system was switched off. Instead, personal heating devices were distributed to the inmates. The justice ministry explained the Cheongsong correctional facility is suitable to accommodate COVID-19 patients individually, since it has many solitary cells. But controversy is rising over whether authorities were too late in testing all inmates at the Dongbu center, which led to the massive cluster infection. Some Dongbu center staff showed symptoms and tested positive beginning November 27. But the first center-wide test was conducted three weeks later on December 18.

[Soundbite] PARK YOO-MI(SEOUL CITY GOV’T) : "At first, infections were confirmed mainly among the center’s staffers and their families. The scope of a test was determined through an epidemiological investigation."

According to a justice ministry official, health authorities downplayed the need to conduct a center-wide test until December 14, the day when the Dongbu Detention Center reported the first case of infection among its inmates. But a full-scale test was later carried out at the ministry’s proposal.