[Anchor]

During the Chuseok holiday, many of you will likely spend a joyful time gathering with cherished family and friends to share meals. However, this is precisely when you need to be extra cautious about food poisoning. It has been revealed that the norovirus, which typically peaks during the winter, surged significantly this past summer.

Reporter Yun Nara has the details.

[Reporter]

Markets are bustling with people shopping for holiday meal ingredients.

Long lines have formed with people looking to buy seafood, jeon (pancakes), and vegetables, but the persistently hot weather is a constant source of concern.

[Jung Eun-kyung / Dongjak-gu, Seoul: My biggest worry is that the food might spoil or go bad. Because the weather is hot. It's hot even right now. If someone gets sick, it would be a huge problem.]

Due to the intense heat, the number of food poisoning investigations requested by the Seoul Metropolitan Institute of Health and Environment through August of this year reached 3,575, surpassing the total of 3,038 cases for the entire previous year.

In particular, norovirus detections causing food poisoning reached 345 cases over the same period, exceeding last year's total detection count of 242. During the summer months from June to August alone, 141 cases were detected, marking a surge of over 70 times compared to last year.

The widespread outbreak of norovirus this summer—a virus that usually thrives in winter—is presumed to be due to genetic mutation.

[Seung Hyun-jung / Researcher, Seoul Metropolitan Institute of Health and Environment: We confirmed a change in the norovirus genetic type starting this April. Because immunity to this new genetic type has not been established, it poses a greater risk.]

Because immunity to the new norovirus has not been formed, transmission occurred rapidly and on a large scale.

Norovirus spreads easily not only through contaminated food or water but also via contact with infected individuals.

For this reason, even greater caution is required to prevent food poisoning during the holiday season, when gatherings with family and relatives and the consumption of food increase.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government urged the public to more strictly adhere to hygiene rules to prevent food poisoning, such as washing hands, thoroughly cooking food, using safe water, and prohibiting symptomatic individuals from preparing food.

(Camera Reporter: Kim Heung-ki | Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa)