"'Medical Staff Masks Stockpiled' Park Neung-hoo, Prioritizes 'Hospital Share First' After 3 Days (Update)"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Park Neung-hoo, the first deputy head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (Minister of Health and Welfare), who sparked controversy by stating that the shortage of masks for medical staff was "because they want to stockpile supplies generously," announced on the 15th that "the share for medical staff will be supported as a top priority."

At a regular briefing held at the Government Seoul Office on the same day, Deputy Park said, "We are continuously supplying quarantine supplies such as Level D protective suits and N95 masks to prevent infections among medical staff," adding, "We have allocated 1 million health masks per day with the principle of prioritizing the share for medical staff."

He stated, "Last week, we contracted to expand the supply to 1.44 million masks per day, and since mid-last week, we have ensured that 1.8 million masks can be supplied daily," and added, "We have established a hotline between the medical organizations responsible for mask distribution and frontline hospitals, and we are using a computerized system to monitor demand in real time."

Deputy Park said, "We expect the shortage issue to be largely resolved with the increased mask supply," but added, "We will monitor the supply and demand situation daily and pay close attention to immediately expand supply if shortages occur."

Earlier, on the 12th, at the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, in response to Rep. Yoon Il-kyu of the Democratic Party of Korea's remark that "(masks) must not be lacking at the sites where they are truly needed," Deputy Park said, "It is not that lacking," and commented that "(the mask shortage situation) is due to the medical staff wanting to stockpile supplies generously." In response, the National Doctors' Association (Jeonui-chong) criticized on the 13th, stating, "Only a very small number of private practitioners have received government-supplied public masks to date," and urged, "We recommend that he quickly resign from his ministerial position and visit a psychiatric hospital for personality and intelligence tests."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.