[르포] “Ah! Mandeok-dong” … Residents of Busan’s largest infectious disease cluster suffer from ‘anxiety and glare’

Even in the first step of social distancing, the region is in an emergency
The number of confirmed cases continues to rise even during quarantine in the nursing hospital cohort.

[아시아경제 영남취재본부 주철인 기자] “How about ‘Mandeok’ today?” These days this is a greeting in Busan asking how to say hello.

As the government’s social distancing measures were reduced to the first stage, the streets and markets of Busan began to revitalize, but it was on the afternoon of the 16th that I visited Mandeok-dong, Busan, which is said to be in the opposite direction to this environment.

The path from the Mandeok-dong entrance to the Hauterak Nursing Hospital on a high mountain slope is densely populated with apartments and houses, but before the sun sets, the neighborhood’s landscape was ugly with no residents coming and going. coming. Where did all the floating population in Mandeok-dong go?

‘Mandeok’ rose and fell in the news every day for the last month as a new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) occurred one after another in public toilets, small restaurants and nursing hospitals. With more than 80 confirmed people living or passing through Mandeok-dong, residents also feel great anxiety and fear.

In the case of nursing hospitals, on the fourth day after the first crown19 confirmed by a nursing assistant on the 13th, 5 people were confirmed on the 16th and another on the 17th. A total of 59 confirmed cases were reached. There were 46 patients, 7 hospital workers, and 6 caregivers.

Nearby shops and facilities were closed again and streets were closed. Residents are afraid to go out, and the places where one or two people gather are turning their faces. In the Busan and Buk-gu offices, all outdoor facilities, such as small parks and sports parks, where many residents gather, have been closed from the start. The attendance rate for daycare centers was also reduced to less than half.

The nursing hospital is being quarantined in a cohort, but Mandeok-dong residents were more anxious than before the government closed the gap. While he was careful and careful that his neighbors and family came into contact with the confirmed person somewhere, he complained of pain from handling the pitying gaze of people in other regions.

A woman in her thirties said: “If there are people on the subway at two Mandeok-dong stations, all the passengers look at them.” A woman in her 50s who met near a nursing hospital said: ““I can’t live here because I’m nervous.” I shook my head.

A resident of a nearby apartment said: “If it explodes, there are a lot of confirmed patients.” “The nursing hospital staff say how many people live in our apartment, but what if it is asymptomatic among residents?”

Another resident said: “I am anxious, so I only go to the masks more” and “I just hope that the number of confirmed cases does not increase and nothing else happens.”

As a nursing hospital employee, which was confirmed recently, was confirmed to attend the general meeting of the model apartment house and redevelopment union, the anxiety became more tangled and tangled. As of the afternoon of the 17th, no additional confirmed cases were released, but quarantine authorities Some of the goals for contact classification have been told that there are still people who have not been able to achieve them.

Reporter Joo Chul-in, Yeongnam Coverage Headquarters [email protected]