▲ This image shows the interior of a room at a residential COVID-19 treatment center in Seoul. (Yonhap)

Seoul city-virus centers

Seoul to phase out residential COVID-19 treatment centers by end-May

SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- The Seoul city government will phase out all its residential COVID-19 treatment centers across the capital by the end of this month amid the receding of the pandemic, officials said.

In their fight against COVID-19, Seoul and other regional governments operated residential treatment centers to quarantine and treat patients with mild cases.

Having downgraded the infectious disease level for COVID-19 by one notch to the second-highest level late last month, South Korea is now phasing out its social distancing rules to return to pre-pandemic normalcy.

"The city will shut down all its residential treatment centers in stages by May 31," Park Yoo-mi, a disease control official of the Seoul city government, said in a press briefing.

She said the city is devising "alternative" measures to handle asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients, along with a contingency plan to be implemented in the event of a virus resurgence.

In line with the country's subsiding coronavirus infections, all but 25 COVID-19 test centers in Seoul will also be closed, Park said.

On Monday, the capital recorded 1,213 new COVID-19 cases, the fewest in about four months.

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