Korean medical staff on Oct. 9 left for Uzbekistan to treat those at a geriatric care facility for Korean residents that recently suffered cluster infections of COVID-19. The photo above is of first lady Kim Jung-sook in April last year visiting Maria Lee, a first-generation Korean immigrant, at the nursing home in the Central Asian nation. (Yonhap News)

By Kim Young Deok and Lee Jihae

Medical staff have gone to Uzbekistan to treat single first-generation Korean residents of the Central Asian nation staying at Arirang Nursing Home, a geriatric care facility that recently suffered cluster infections of COVID-19. 

Cheong Wa Dae Spokesperson Kang Min-seok on Oct. 11 told a briefing that a medical team was sent on Oct. 9 to Uzbekistan the day after an order to that effect from President Moon Jae-in.

The spokesperson said Choo Moo-jin, president of the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare, and staff from the National Medical Center arrived in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent at 2 p.m. on Oct. 9 and remain stationed there. They visited the Arirang facility to conduct an emergency inspection of the health of patients, treatment and facilities based on severity of illness, and made joint rounds the next day with domestic medical staff there.

Exclusively catering to single and elderly Goryeoin, or ethnic Korean residents of Central Asia, on the outskirts of Tashkent, the facility had 27 out of 29 residents test positive for COVID-19.

The Uzbek government gave its full-scale support for the medical staff's activities by providing the antiviral medication Remdesivir, an oxygen treatment ambulance and hospitals designated for the critically ill.

The spokesperson said Korea and Uzbekistan have a "special strategic partnership," adding, "Uzbekistan's support for Arirang Nursing Home, a geriatric care facility for Goryeoin, symbolizes the bilateral relationship."

He said the team brought letters of consolation from the first lady written in Korean and Russian for all patients at the facility.

kyd1991@korea.kr