“Elected candidates are aware of the serious situation of ‘security threat’… They should also consider the fatigue of the people and the suffering of the people”
Early experience leading the response to COVID-19… Known as a 40-year acquaintance with President-elect Yoon
Former Kyungpook National University Hospital Director Jeong Ho-young, who was nominated as the Minister of Health and Welfare candidate, is a medical person who directed the initial response in Daegu, the first epicenter of the domestic Corona 19 epidemic.
Candidate Jeong said on the 10th, “President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol recognizes that an infectious disease is covering the whole country as a very serious situation that threatens national security.
We will think about how to deal with it properly.”
Candidate Chung said this in a question-and-answer session with reporters during the briefing on the day of the minister’s appointment to a question with the purpose of ‘how to implement quarantine policies such as existing social distancing, vaccination-related regulations, and mandatory wearing of masks’.
Candidate Chung said, “It is difficult to say too hasty in my opinion that I have become a minister candidate in a situation where the current working-level officials are working hard,” he said.
Corona 19 has been around for more than two years since it was introduced into Korea in January 2020 and is a major issue that has had a major impact on society and the economy as a whole and on people’s daily lives.
As the recent omicron mutation pandemic has passed its peak and turned to a downward trend, expectations for a return to daily life are rising again, and the current government is preparing a ‘post-omicron response system’.
According to the current trend, around May, when the Yun Seok-yeol administration takes office, it is expected that the new quarantine policy to manage COVID-19 in daily life will be implemented in earnest.
Candidate Jeong, a surgeon and stomach cancer authority, has experience leading the initial response to COVID-19 while serving as the hospital director of Kyungpook National University Hospital from August 2017 to August 2020.
When a large-scale confirmed case occurred in Daegu in February 2020, candidate Chung received high evaluations as a candidate for minister in that he was the first in the country to establish a life treatment center at Kyungpook National University Hospital and the world’s first to introduce a drive-thru test.
The new government has revealed that stabilization of the COVID-19 situation is a top priority for health and welfare policies by designating experts in the medical and medical administration fields, not in the welfare field, as candidates for the Minister of Welfare.
President-elect Yoon expressed his intention to appoint a finance and welfare expert as vice minister instead.
Candidate Chung said in a statement issued through the Ministry of Health and Welfare, “I feel a great sense of duty and responsibility as I have been appointed as the first Minister of Health and Welfare of the new government. We will do our best to realize welfare.”
In particular, he said, “We will reorganize the quarantine and health care system so that we can successfully complete our daily recovery from COVID-19 and respond preemptively and scientifically to the emergence of a new infectious disease or a re-pandemic of COVID-19.”
He added that it will respond proactively and preemptively for the development of vaccines and therapeutics and the development of advanced medical fields.
Regarding welfare policy, he said, “In response to the rapid demographic change, we will implement welfare tailored to consumers such as children, youth, parents, and the elderly, and create a society where growth and welfare can circulate.”
He also pledged to faithfully carry out the government tasks to be confirmed by the Presidential Transition Committee.
Candidate Jeong, who graduated from Kyungpook National University College of Medicine, is said to have been in a relationship for more than 40 years after getting to know Yoon-elect Yoon, who was born in 1960, through a friend who attended Seoul National University Law School.
President-elect Yoon has a history of working at the Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office (1994 and 2009) and the Daegu High Prosecutor’s Office (2014).
/yunhap news
