Virus test centers crowded on first day of new testing scheme

Feb 04, 2022, 09:30 am

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A queue ticket for a rapid antigen test given at a test center located in Yeouido, Seoul, on Feb.3, 2022. The ticket says 491 people are waiting./ Photographed by Lee Sun-young

AsiaToday reporter Lee Sun-young

Thursday was the first day when people could undergo COVID-19 testing at hospitals in local communities. Those local hospitals and clinics were quiet while some hospitals and test centers where polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are conducted, were jammed with people as larger than usual numbers of people sought to undergo testing.

A government-designated local medical center for respiratory care located in Yangcheon-gu was relatively quiet at 3:28 pm on Thursday. Most of the people who visited the hospital came for treatment due to general respiratory symptoms, not for undergoing COVID-19 tests. Some people came to get tested for the virus, but they were not separated from general patients.

On the other hand, a long line was formed at a COVID-19 testing center near a government-designated respiratory clinic in Yeongdeungpo-gu at around 1:56 pm as people sought to get a rapid antigen test. “I’ve waited for nearly two hours. I came to get tested because my friend I met yesterday tested positive. But I didn’t know it would take this long,” said a 32-year-old Yongsan resident surnamed Choi.

Observers say that people flocked to COVID-19 testing centers and hospitals because there were actually only some 200 local hospitals and clinics participating for COVID-19 treatment, which was initially expected to be about nearly 1,000. As of 2 pm Thursday, there were only 19 local hospitals for COVID-19 testing in Seoul.

Another reason was that the list of government-designated hospitals was announced late. The list was posted on the website of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service around 12:00 am. Besides, it came under fire for its poor network connection.

It was evident that testing centers were unable to handle the increase in test-takers. Many people lined up to get tested for the rapid antigen testing at a testing center at Yeouido Park in Seoul, however not a few people returned home without being tested. “I came to get tested because I might have been in close contact with confirmed patient, but I am troubled because the testing center is closed,” said an office worker surnamed Park in his 50s.

The testing center opened at 9 am and distributed numbered tickets at 12:52 pm, and closed applications early. “We closed earlier than expected since many people came to get tested,” an official from the temporary testing center in Yeouido said.

“The Korean Medical Association has sent a list of 1,004 local hospitals and clinics that applied for respiratory treatment designation, but only 343 of them were available. We checked the list once again, and found that nearly 200 were available,” Lee Chang-joon, a senior official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said.

#test center #PCR #rapid antigen test