The government has begun testing tens of thousands of employees at nursing homes and convalescent and psychiatric hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area amid recent cluster outbreaks at such facilities.
Health officials said they will also test some 30,000 patients who have visited and used these facilities in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.
Hospital patients who already received coronavirus tests when they were admitted will be exempt.
According to the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, this targeted testing program will be carried out through the end of October.
At least 73 cases of COVID-19 have been linked to a convalescent hospital in Busan while a separate cluster of at least 53 cases from a rehabilitation center in the city of Gwangju, just south of Seoul.
Officials say similar testing may also be conducted in other regions, if necessary.
<Photo: Yonhap News>
