Although the possibility of a re-emergence of COVID-19 in the summer and the introduction of monkey pox is being raised, the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s quarantine and medical command tower is still vacant. With the resignation of Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Ho-yeong and the schedule of the June 1 local elections overlapping, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is in an atmosphere where the ministry will have to work without a minister for the time being.
On the 24th, the Ministry of Welfare, 1st Vice Minister Jo Gyu-hong and 2nd Vice Minister Lee Ki-il presided over an emergency meeting and urged employees to establish discipline for public service.
This is a measure taking into account the possibility that candidate Chung resigned following 43 days of nomination the night before, and that the ministerial position might remain vacant for the time being. Considering the risk of personnel hearings, the possibility of not appointing candidates before the local elections and the schedule of nominations and personnel hearings followingward are taken into account. An official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, “I expected the resignation as there was a lot of controversy, but there is a big difference between having a minister and not having a minister.”
Is the successor candidate also a medical staff? President’s Office “I’m not in a hurry”
President Yoon Seok-yeol presides over an ad hoc cabinet meeting for the preparation of the supplementary budget held at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul on the 12th. news
As we have to keep an eye on the spread of infectious diseases, the new candidate is highly likely to come from the same medical staff as candidate Jeong. Candidate Chung was appointed because he handled COVID-19 well while serving as the president of Kyungpook National University Hospital. Prime Minister Han Deok-soo is known to have recommended health, medical care, and hospital administration experts to President Yoon to respond to COVID-19.
For this reason, new candidates such as Yoon Do-heum, vice president of Cha Medical School and In Yo-han, former president of the Korea Foundation for International Health are being mentioned as new candidates. Vice-Chancellor Yoon is a former director of Severance Hospital and Yonsei University Medical Center, and has rich experience in hospital administration. Former President In, who served as the director of foreign medical treatment at Severance Hospital, contributed to the development of society by providing medical services for a long time. At the inauguration ceremony of President Yoon, he rose to the podium with the president and his wife as one of the representatives of the people’s hope. Ki-seok Ki-seok, a professor of respiratory medicine at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, who worked in the Corona 19 Response Special Committee under the Presidential Commission, and Kang-lip Kim, who served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, will also rise and fall in Hamapyeong.
Some even say that for the pension reform, which is President Yoon’s representative promise, he might appoint a pension expert, Kyung-Jun Yoo, a member of the People’s Power, and Yong-Ha Kim, a professor at Soonchunhyang University.
BA.2.12.1 spread quietly… Enhanced quarantine for monkey pox
On the followingnoon of the 24th, medical staff are moving to the Corona 19 test center inside Incheon International Airport’s Terminal 2. The quarantine authorities announced on the same day that they would strengthen monitoring to prevent the introduction of monkey pox into Korea, which has been infected one following another. News 1
But it is not a situation to relax. This is because the sub-mutation BA.2.12.1 of Omicron, which is spreading in the US and Europe, is spreading quietly in Korea, and the introduction of monkeypox is only a matter of time. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on the same day that 13 additional cases of BA.2.12.1 infection, 1 BA.4, and 4 BA.5 were confirmed in Korea. BA.2.12.1 Three of the infected were transmitted through community transmission.
BA.2.12.1 is a mutation that has 20% stronger transmission than the stealth omicron (BA.2), and the number of confirmed cases in the United States has increased for seven weeks in a row. In South Africa, BA.4 and BA.5 became the dominant species. There is also speculation that the dominant species will change in the UK soon. However, for the first time in Korea, the weekly risk of COVID-19 was evaluated as ‘low’ in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.
Although the risk of infection with monkey pox is small, quarantine authorities have strengthened monitoring as the spread of infection abroad. Bang Dae-won, head of the Epidemiological Investigation and Analysis Division, said, “Since May, many cases of infection have been reported in 18 countries, including the United States and Europe.
Ryuho reporter ho@hankookilbo.com
