Japan's Kyodo News Praises "Korea's Residential Treatment Centers Prevent Medical System Collapse"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Japan's Kyodo News on the 21st (local time) gave a positive evaluation, stating that South Korea's 'Living Treatment Centers,' one of the measures to respond to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), are helping to prevent the collapse of the medical system.

Kyodo News introduced the Living Treatment Centers for mild cases, saying, "In South Korea, which is actively conducting tests and isolating infected individuals as a COVID-19 countermeasure, the number of tests has exceeded 310,000."

The newspaper reported, "In South Korea, where about 8,800 infections have been confirmed so far, these centers are preventing the collapse of the medical system," and added, "Since the centers began operating on the 2nd in Daegu, where infections were concentrated, using government facilities, large companies such as Samsung and LG accepted government requests and have consecutively provided employee training facilities, thereby increasing capacity."

It continued, "These centers were born out of trial and error after a surge in infections caused a shortage of hospital beds, leading to cases of death while patients waited for hospitalization at home," and also reported that "President Moon Jae-in, during his visit to the Cheonan Center on the 12th, said, 'Since this is the first time implementing this system, please immediately point out any shortcomings during its operation. We will resolve them.'"

In particular, it noted the potential of the system as a complementary measure to Japan's medical system. It also mentioned that South Korea's infection fatality rate is only 1.2%, which is lower than Japan's.

Kyodo News pointed out, "Although the situation in South Korea cannot yet be considered optimistic, the concern that the medical system would become overwhelmed if many infections are detected through extensive testing has been somewhat alleviated by operating the Living Treatment Centers."

It added, "Foreign media praise continues, including the U.S. Washington Post describing South Korea's testing system as 'the most effective weapon against the virus.'"

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