COVID-19 outbreak at prison in Seoul leads to tougher measures at correctional facilities nationwid

Arirang News 2020-12-31

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동부구치소 집단 감염, 단일시설에서 발생한 역대 최다 감염... 법무부 대응하기 위해 교정시설 3단계로 격상

Now on to the latest on the recent cluster infection at a correction facility in Seoul...
Another round of COVID-19 testing at the Dongbu Detention Center... has discovered over one-hundred additional virus infections... bringing the tally to nearly one-thousand.
The Justice Ministry offered its apologies... and announced stronger measures to try to contain the virus within this confined space.
Kim Yeon-seung reports.
The Ministry of Justice on Thursday apologized for the spiraling COVID-19 outbreak at the Dongbu correctional facility in Seoul.
"We once again apologize to the public,... that such an incident occurred at the Seoul Dongbu Detention Center... due to our lack of preemptive measures and the limitations of detention facilities."
A fourth round of extensive COVID-19 testing revealed 126 new cases within the grounds, adding up to a total of 918 infections.
Meanwhile, another person has died,... bringing the number of deaths linked to the outbreak to two.
This is the biggest cluster infection from a single facility that the country has seen.
Officials attribute this dire outbreak to the dense population and the poor ventilation of the facility.
The Ministry of Justice has decided to take drastic preventive measures to curb the outbreak.
"We will raise social distancing to level 3 in all correctional facilities. Inmate services like face-to-face education will be completely restricted. There will be minimal contact among inmates and lawyer visitation will also be limited."
This measure will take effect immediately and last until January 13th.
Regular visitors are completely banned and lawyer visitations are banned except in certain circumstances.
Workers are also not allowed to leave the facility and cannot return home for two weeks.
Also, to lower the population of the prison, model and vulnerable inmates will be reviewed for parole, while some will be sent to other facilities.
Kim Yeon-seung, Arirang News

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