Hello! This nurse Taesub from the KDI Healthcare Room.

As we are about to have a seasonal change along with the cold weather still remaining, some of you may catch a cold or have allergy symptoms around this time. However, many people do not feel comfortable visiting a clinic or hospital due to the COVID-19 epidemic across the country.

In order to solve this issue, the government designated 214 hospitals in Korea as a Fear-Free Hospital as of March 1, 2020.

When you go to a general or university hospital, it is common that patients are waiting in the same area with different purposes of their visits such as: eye clinic, GI clinic, pulmonary clinic, heart clinic, etc. If there is a patient with COVID-19, the infected individual can easily spread the virus to other people in the entire hospital.

The main purpose of Fear-Free Hospital is to provide a safety and relief to all citizens visiting a hospital by reducing the fear from the COVID-19 infection. By segregation the Respiratory Clinic for patient with respiratory symptoms, it can reduce possible respiratory infections from spreading to other areas in the hospital. All patients with respiratory symptoms must go to a designated area in the hospital to receive medical services including outpatient visit to hospitalization. 

There are total of 214 designated Fear-Free hospitals in Korea and more hospital will join them in the future. Currently, 5 general hospitals are available in the city of Daejeon nearest to Sejong City: Daejeon Sun Hospital, Yuseong Sun Hospital, Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, Eulji University Hospital, and Daejeon Korea Hospital. For more information on Fear-Free hospitals in your area, please contact the KDI Healthcare Room via 044-550-1054.

Please continue complying with daily preventive actions such as wearing a mask and frequent hand-washing.

I wish you and all of your beloved ones a good health. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding COVID-19.

Thank you.