Seoul and Capital Area Bed Occupancy Rate at 63%... 355 Additional Facilities Including Public Institutions Deployed

On the 10th, merchants and visitors near the screening clinic for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) set up at Namdaemun Market in Seoul are undergoing specimen tests. According to Seoul City and Jung-gu, eight merchants at Kennedy Shopping Center in Namdaemun Market were confirmed positive for COVID-19. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] As the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is rapidly increasing, 63% of beds in the metropolitan area, including Seoul, are currently in use. The Seoul Metropolitan Government is securing additional beds by introducing 355 new beds by next week.

Park Yu-mi, Director of the Citizen Health Bureau (Quarantine Controller) at the Seoul Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, stated at an emergency briefing on the 22nd, "Out of 1,804 beds in the metropolitan area, 1,138 are currently in use, with a bed occupancy rate of 63.1%." The bed occupancy rate is 63.1%.

As of midnight on the 21st, the bed occupancy rate increased to 76.7%, with 857 of the 1,118 beds secured by Seoul in use. However, with additional beds such as those in residential treatment centers for mild patients, the overall bed occupancy rate slightly decreased.

Since the middle of this month, as confirmed COVID-19 cases surged, the bed occupancy rate in Seoul increased by about 10% daily. Accordingly, starting from the 21st, Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and Incheon have been jointly classifying patients and allocating beds through the metropolitan COVID-19 response team at the National Medical Center. As a result, confirmed cases in these areas are assigned beds within the metropolitan area regardless of their place of residence.

From the afternoon of this day, Seoul will additionally use 124 beds at the Korea Electric Power Corporation Human Resources Development Institute and 173 beds at the Eunpyeong Fire Academy starting from the 26th. From the 27th, 58 general beds at municipal hospitals will also be operated for COVID-19 patient treatment.

Director Park said, "We are continuously consulting with various public institutions and facilities to install additional residential treatment centers."

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