당정청, 마스크 대란 대책 논의…"수출물량 거의 없애고 주말생산 독려"
To contain the spread of COVID-19 in South Korea, the country's ruling party, government and presidential office have been locked in talks on ways to tackle the outbreak and its wider impact.
As part of that, they discussed ways to increase the supply of protective face masks.
Our Kim Mok-yeon reports from the National Assembly.
Representatives from the ruling Democratic Party, government and the Blue House
have vowed to come up with measures to increase the supply of masks.
In a meeting at the National Assembly on Wednesday, former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, who leads the ruling party's coronavirus response team, said the three sides have agreed to secure the supply of masks by sharply restricting exports and encouraging factories to increase their mask production even on the weekends.
"We need to respond extraordinarily. First, production needs to be increased. Second, fair distribution should be observed. Third, we should find ways to prevent the public from waiting in long queues to buy masks."
While stressing the importance of fair distribution and the need to prevent the hoarding of masks, Lee said that it's also important to make the public understand that residents of Daegu, which has been hit the hardest by the epidemic, should be given priority.
As part of such efforts, the three groups agreed to include masks in an online shared information program used by pharmacies, called the Drug Utilization Review, which allows pharmacists to check consumers' medication purchase history.
"We plan to increase the sales of masks in pharmacies that utilize the D-U-R system so that we can keep track of the masks sold to each person. We will establish a system where the public can buy a certain number of masks when they visit these pharmacies."
Alongside mask supply, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki pledged to support quarantine efforts through the use of reserve funds.
"The government will use emergency funds to support quarantine measures until the supplementary budget can be injected."
Participants in the meeting also vowed to categorize infected patients based on the severity of their symptoms and cooperate with local governments so that treatment facilities could be organized accordingly.
Kim Mok-yeon, Arirang News.
#COVID19 #coronavirus #mask
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