Assuming 1,000 New Daily Patients... 10,000 Additional Beds Secured Over 3 Weeks (Update)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The government plans to secure more than 10,000 additional beds over three weeks in the Seoul metropolitan area, assuming a scenario where 1,000 patients occur daily.

Park Neung-hoo, the first deputy head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (Minister of Health and Welfare), stated at a regular briefing on the 13th, "Assuming the worst-case scenario, we will secure an additional 7,000 beds in residential treatment centers, 2,700 beds in infectious disease-dedicated hospitals, and 300 beds for severe patient treatment."

As of the 12th, the Seoul metropolitan area currently has 4,805 beds in residential treatment centers, 2,280 beds in infectious disease-dedicated hospitals, and 333 beds for severe patient treatment.

The problem is that available beds are only 2,095 in residential treatment centers, 440 in infectious disease-dedicated hospitals, and 13 for severe patient treatment. Assuming 1,000 confirmed cases occur daily for 20 days in the metropolitan area and 500 patients are released from isolation daily, there will be a demand for 10,000 new beds over the next 20 days. Classified by severity, this includes 7,000 asymptomatic or mild cases, 2,700 moderate or high-risk cases, and 300 severe cases, which exceeds the available beds.

Accordingly, 287 additional beds for severe patients will be secured. While newly designating base dedicated hospitals exclusively treating COVID-19 patients, beds for severe patient treatment will also be continuously secured.

Deputy Head Park explained, "We will designate places capable of treating severe patients, such as the National Medical Center, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Seongnam City Medical Center, and two private medical institutions, as COVID-19 base dedicated hospitals, freeing up all or part of their beds to secure 152 beds."

Additionally, 108 beds will be secured from nationally designated inpatient isolation beds, tertiary general hospitals, and national university hospitals, and 27 beds will be secured by utilizing voluntarily reported beds from private medical institutions.

For infectious disease-dedicated hospital beds, 2,260 additional beds will be secured. The plan is to first mobilize all public medical resources and gradually expand to the private sector.

Excluding 472 beds that local governments plan to secure independently (207 in Seoul, 86 in Incheon, 179 in Gyeonggi), 1,788 beds will be prioritized for use from medical institutions affiliated with or under the jurisdiction of all central government ministries.

Deputy Head Park said, "Patients admitted to hospitals designated as infectious disease-dedicated hospitals will be transferred to hospitals capable of full admission through cooperation among the government, local governments, and hospital associations."

Residential treatment center beds will be gradually secured up to 7,000. Specifically, an additional 18 centers designated by Seoul City (1,501 beds), 4 centers designated by Gyeonggi Province (858 beds), and 3 centers designated by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (1,050 beds) will be secured. Furthermore, about 1,500 beds will be expanded by reactivating residential treatment centers that are currently suspended.

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