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| Health officials run COVID-19 tests on Coupang logistics center employees in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Courtesy of Goyang City Government. |
By Kim Se-jeong
Amid rising concerns over new COVID-19 cases linked to e-commerce giant Coupang's logistics centers, the virus was detected on a computer keyboard, mouse and laptop used by employees in the company's Bucheon logistics center, the health authorities said Friday.
"We've collected samples from an office on the second floor of the Bucheon center and ran tests. We suspect those who used those devices might have carried the virus," said Jung Eun-kyeong, the director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) during a press conference.
On Thursday, the authorities said the virus was also found on employees' hats and shoes, triggering worries among customers.
Since the first infection linked to Coupang's Bucheon logistics center was reported six days ago, the total number of cases involving two centers has reached 102, according to the KCDC, up 20 from a day earlier. The majority of cases were reported from Coupang's Bucheon center.
Goyang City Government confirmed none of the 486 employees at Coupang's logistics center in the city had tested positive for the virus.
The central government said it completed inspections of two Coupang logistics centers and plans to do the same at 33 other centers owned by e-commerce companies nationwide by Monday to ensure employees adhere to personal hygiene rules.
Local news outlets criticized Coupang's failure to instruct employees to follow necessary hygiene measures. According to the Munwha Ilbo, a Korean-language daily, employees shared uniforms and hats with other employees on different shifts, bottles of hand sanitizer were empty and devices monitoring employees' temperatures were left unchecked.
Coupang is one of the most successful e-commerce outlets in Korea. It gained market dominance through its fast delivery service and recently hired many new temporary deliverymen to manage the surging number of orders.
The new cluster cases placed worries on already worried parents with school-aged children. Korea's schools opened back up two weeks ago and new cases have been sporadically reported among schools students and teachers. A teacher at an elementary school in Incheon is among the latest to be confirmed to have COVID-19.
In response, the educational authorities said Friday the schools will stay open with tougher rules to ensure children's safety.
The KCDC reported 58 new cases Thursday, pushing the total number to 11,402. Among the 58, only three involved people who had recently returned from abroad.
From 6 p.m. Friday, all public facilities in Seoul and the metropolitan area were shut down again for two weeks, almost 20 days after they opened back up. Libraries, museums, and outdoor sport facilities were open from the beginning of May with eased social distancing.
Announcing the shutdown, the government said the new development linked to Coupang logistics centers is worrisome and warned that the country could go back to a tough social distancing campaign if the outbreak isn't put under control in the next two weeks.
Also on Friday, the government officially stopped mask rationing. The system began in late February as masks became increasingly difficult to find. When the shortage was at its peak, people were allowed to purchase only two masks per week with ID checks to ensure no one went over the allotted amount. The government said it will still check customers' IDs.
The mask shortage was the result of hoarding. The government banned the export of masks to ensure there were enough for those living here; and also stockpiled 100 million masks.
Jung said the government has approved imports of remdesivir for the emergency treatment of COVID-19 patients.
"On May 28, a committee of experts on clinical tests recommended remdesivir to be imported to be used as a treatment for the coronavirus through the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety," Jung said.
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