Role of Daegu Medical Association in the infection control of the COVID-19 outbreak

ABSTRACT

In the mass outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease pandemic, the Daegu Medical Association managed to control and reduce the number of victims in Daegu successfully. More than 6,000 people were diagnosed in this city within a four-week period, and both medical system breakdown and increasing mortality were imminent. However, we minimized fatalities despite this explosive outbreak in a short time. The collaboration between the Daegu Medical Association and the local government may provide a reference model for overcoming regional outbreaks in the global pandemic era. We can prevent the shortage of medical resources by recruiting volunteer doctors and nurses early through public awareness campaigns. We can overcome the first massive outbreak using several new diagnostic and therapeutic systems such as the drive-through diagnosis system, telephonic counseling for self-quarantine patients by volunteer doctors, and therapeutic living centers. Both sharing the process of collaboration with the public system and summarizing the factors can provide useful information for building effective response systems to cope with the ongoing local outbreak of COVID-19 and any future epidemics of infectious diseases.