Reducing Beds in Infectious Disease Dedicated Hospitals... Some Converted to General Hospital Beds (Update)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] As the domestic novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation stabilizes, the government has decided to gradually reduce the number of dedicated infectious disease hospitals.

Yoon Tae-ho, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' quarantine team, stated at a regular briefing held at the Government Complex Sejong on the same day, "Out of the approximately 7,500 beds in 67 dedicated infectious disease hospitals, some will be reduced and adjusted to maintain a minimum number of beds at the city and provincial levels, and converted into general hospital beds."

Yoon added, "The bed reduction will be prioritized at institutions with low occupancy rates, and after establishing bed management and reactivation plans by region, further reductions will be pursued."

The first phase of reduction will be carried out today targeting 12 hospitals with no current confirmed patients and 682 beds. The second phase will be conducted within this month targeting 11 hospitals, including nursing hospitals that are not suitable for continuous infectious disease response and those with an occupancy rate below 5%.

The third phase will be implemented in early next month for 12 cities and provinces excluding Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and the metropolitan area, after establishing regional bed management and reactivation plans. The five cities and provinces in Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and the metropolitan area will review additional reductions after monitoring trends in confirmed patients.

Yoon explained, "If the four phases of reduction are completed, the number of infectious disease beds nationwide will be adjusted to around 1,500 to 2,300 beds under the trend of maintaining daily confirmed cases below 50."

When converting dedicated infectious disease hospitals to general hospital beds, facilities temporarily installed for COVID-19 treatment will be maintained, and bed management and reactivation plans will be established to enable rapid reactivation in times of crisis.

In particular, based on the trend of confirmed patients, the crisis situation will be divided into four stages, maintaining the appropriate number of beds required at each stage, and securing the number of beds for the next stage within 10 days if a situation arises. The stages are defined as follows: ▲Stage 1: daily confirmed cases below 50 ▲Stage 2: daily confirmed cases 50 or more ▲Stage 3: daily confirmed cases 100 or more ▲Stage 4: daily confirmed cases 1,000 or more.

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