Mild COVID-19 Patients Sent to Residential Treatment Centers... Metropolitan Area Hospital Bed Occupancy Rate at 60% Range

COVID-19 Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters Regular Briefing
Government: "84% of Newly Assigned Patients Are Mild... Allocated to Residential Treatment Centers"

An ambulance carrying COVID-19 patients is arriving at Taereung Athletes' Village, where the Seoul City Living Treatment Center has been established.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The government announced that a significant number of recent confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) have shown mild symptoms, with the majority admitted to residential treatment centers.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on the 23rd, 84% of newly assigned patients were classified as mild cases and placed in residential treatment centers. Since the 21st, the emergency response team in the metropolitan area has been allocating hospital beds based on patient severity, admitting most patients with no or mild symptoms to residential treatment centers rather than hospitals.

As new cases have surged recently in the metropolitan area, concerns about bed shortages have been raised. In particular, it has been identified that middle-aged and elderly patients from places such as Sarang Jeil Church are more numerous compared to previous large-scale cluster outbreaks, making the allocation of limited hospital beds a critical issue.

According to the Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, as of 8 p.m. the previous day, the occupancy rate of severe patient treatment beds in the metropolitan area was 62.8%, leaving about 70 beds available. The occupancy rate of infectious disease dedicated hospitals was 63.9%, with 652 beds available out of a total of 1,804 beds.

With the possibility of hundreds more new patients in the coming days, the government has secured additional residential treatment centers. Two more facilities, Korea Electric Power Corporation Human Resources Development Institute and Gyeonggi Education Training Institute, were opened the previous day, adding 344 rooms. As a result, the total number of residential treatment centers secured by the government has increased to five. The current occupancy rate is about 65.5%, allowing for approximately 403 more patients. The government plans to open two more residential treatment centers by early next week and increase the admission capacity to around 3,000 people.

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