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KMID : 1143420210140191225
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Public Health Weekly Report
2021 Volume.14 No. 19 p.1225 ~ p.1236
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Quantitative Analysis of a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Call Center Outbreak, South Korea
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Lee Seon-Young
Park Shin-Young
Kim Eun-Young
Yu Jeong-Hee
Ko Hwa-Pyeong
Park Joo-Youn
Yu Jung-Yeon
Bae Sang-Whan
Kim Gwang-Jin
Jang Hyun-Chul
Ahn Seon-Hee
Park Young-Joon
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Abstract
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Worldwide, it is generally accepted that crowded office settings such as call centers pose a high risk for the spread of
Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19). Through a quantitative analysis of the results of a COVID-19 outbreak at a call center in Korea, this study aimed to identify the risk factors of transmission. In February 2021, a total of 121 call center related COVID19 cases were reported, including 93 call center employees and 28 secondary cases.
Online surveys, CCTV analysis for contact tracing measures and indoor air propagation environments were evaluated to
identify the general characteristics. Epi-curves of confirmed case were collected through epidemiological surveys and
assess the implementation of ‘daily life quarantine’ was assessed. Daily life quarantine is a term coined by the Korean
Ministry of Health and Welfare to describe a social distancing level that allows people to engage in certain economic and
social activities under specified conditions such as mask wearing. The incidence rate on the fourth floor of the call center,
where the first confirmed case occurred, was 47.9%, the highest among the which was 78.3%. According to a survey on the implementation of daily life quarantine, 41.5% of confirmed case and 58.5% of non-confirmed case wore Korean Filter 94 (KF94) masks (masks regulated by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety [MFDS]) while 40.4% of confirmed case and 59.5% of non-confirmed case wore non-KF94 masks as 38.9% of the CCTV analysis showed. As a result of this study’s air diffusion experiment, a change in concentration the air was observed from the seat of the first confirmed cases to a case that sat at the center of team C. It was therefore, determined that the cross infection was a result of the virus spreading through air diffusion.This study concluded that it is important for governments to establish specific quarantine measures in the facilities that house call centers (mask-wearing daily life, entry and exit management, symptom management, ventilation check, etc.) and for organizations to create work environments in which daily life quarantine can be properly implemented.
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KEYWORD
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Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19), Call-Center, Outbreak, Epidemiology
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