동부구치소 집단 감염, 단일시설에서 발생한 역대 최다 감염... 범무부 대응하기 위해 교정시설 3단계로 격상<br /><br />A major COVID-19 outbreak at a correctional facility in Seoul has led to over 800 infections connected to the prison as of Thursday.<br />The Justice Ministry has announced stronger measures to try to get the outbreak under control.<br />Kim Yeon-seung reports.<br />The Ministry of Justice on Thursday apologized for the spiraling COVID-19 outbreak at the Dongbu correctional facility in Seoul.<br />"We once again apologize to the public,... that such an incident occurred at the Seoul Dongbu Detention Center... due to our lack of preemptive measures and the limitations of detention facilities."<br /><br />This comes as the facility as of Thursday has seen a total of 792 cases, with 771 inmates and 21 facility workers infected.<br />Another person has died, bringing the number of deaths linked to the outbreak to two.<br />But the outbreak at the detention center didn't stay behind bars.<br />It has also spread to some of the workers' family members, bringing the total cases linked to the outbreak to 837 so far.<br />This is the biggest cluster infection from a single facility that the country has seen.<br />Officials attribute this dire outbreak to the dense population and the poor ventilation of the facility.<br />The Ministry of Justice has decided to take drastic preventive measures to curb the outbreak.<br /><br />"We will raise social distancing to level 3 in all correctional facilities. Inmate services like face-to-face education will be completely restricted. There will be minimal contact among inmates and lawyer visitation will also be limited."<br /><br />This measure will take effect immediately and last until January 13th.<br />Regular visitors are completely banned and lawyer visitations are banned except in certain circumstances.<br />Workers are also not allowed to leave the facility and cannot return home for two weeks.<br />Also to lower the population of the prison, model inmates will be reviewed for parole, while some will be sent to other facilities.<br />Kim Yeon-seung, Arirang News<br />
