South Korea Holds Mass COVID-19 Test For 70 Inmates In 52 Prisons

Photo illustration (Kim Hong-Ji / RWA, Antara)

JAKARTA - South Korea (South Korea) has conducted a mass COVID-19 test on 70 thousand prisoners and guards in 52 prisons. The trial was carried out after the emergence of a case cluster in a detention center.

This was announced by the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes), Wednesday, January 6. More than half of the 2,292 total detainees and staff of a prison in southeastern Seoul have tested positive for COVID-19.

The spread of the infection occurred after the appearance of the first cluster in the prison was reported last month, said senior health ministry official Yoon Tae-ho. The Ministry of Justice is separating prisoners who have tested positive for COVID-19 by transferring them to designated hospitals, Yoon said.

So far, the number of COVID-19 cases related to prison environments across South Korea has soared to 1,191 cases out of the country's total COVID-19 cases of 65,818.

Health authorities will also decide whether it will extend the suspension of flights from Britain again after at least 12 cases of new coronavirus infections emerged, Yoon said.

Currently, South Korea has extended a ban on direct entry flights from the UK to January 7, 2021, and requires every passenger arriving from that country or South Africa to take a COVID-19 test before departure.