한산해진 대구 선별 진료소...여전히 ‘해외 유입’ 사투 중인 의료진

Despite the dramatic drop new COVID-19 infections, there is one city not taking any chances .
Once the epicenter of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak, the triage centers in Daegu are mostly quiet.
It's a sharp contrast from two months ago when more than 8-thousand tests took place in a single day.
But, medical staff and public officials are still hard at work as the city shifts its focus to containing imported cases.
Our Lee Kyung-eun files this from Daegu.
Here at Dongdaegu Train Station, central Daegu, a city official is waiting at the platform for the people arriving from Incheon International Airport.
These people are asymptomatic arrivals who did not get tested at the airport.
Instead, the city of Daegu is testing every single one of them, after being transported via KTX high-speed train in specially designated cars.
The officer will escort entrants to a triage center right across from the station, which keeps track of their travel schedules based on ticket purchase records.
At a separate booth, doctors are on standby to take swab samples.
But, with a lot of the people arriving being foreign nationals, there are more things to consider.
"We do have translation services, and the questionnaires are provided in multiple languages, but we often have to use body language."
"Once the testing is done, entrants can return home, either by taking their own private cars or by taking these special taxis prepared by the city."
The taxis run according to special operational rules, and with the drivers having to be fully kitted out in protective gear.
"We have to constantly sterilize people's baggage as well as the cars. And air conditioning is not allowed, to prevent the virus circulating. We open the windows instead."
Then, after the entrants' 2-week mandatory quarantine nears its end, a team of medical staff will conduct a home-visit for a second test using a moving triage center. But, for the medical workers, it brings about its own complications.
"It's hard when neighbors come and ask us which house we are visiting for testing, obviously we can't tell them. Also, most people want to keep things a secret so they ask us to get changed in areas that are out of site like on the stairs in apartment blocks."
With this extensive quarantine system, people arriving into the country are completely segregated from the moment they arrive to when they enter their homes.
Lee Kyung-eun, Arirang News, Daegu.