Goyang City Faces 'Bed Shortage', Expands Living Treatment Centers and Safe Accommodations Significantly

KINTEX Caravans Urgently Converted to 30 Temporary Living Treatment Centers
Chungbuk National University Dormitory Room 101 Expanded as Safe Accommodation

Goyang City Converts Camper Vans into Temporary Living Treatment Centers [Provided by Goyang City]

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-cheol] Goyang City in Gyeonggi Province has decided to convert camping cars into temporary living treatment centers starting from the 29th due to a shortage of hospital beds amid the spread of COVID-19, and to expand safe accommodations by receiving dormitory support from universities.

On the 27th, Goyang City stated, "With daily confirmed cases pouring out around 1,000, the capacity of hospital beds to accommodate all of them has practically reached its limit," explaining the measure.

The city plans to invest a monthly budget of 20 million won to convert 30 of the 36 Kintex caravans previously used as safe accommodations into living treatment centers, allowing asymptomatic and mild patients waiting for hospital bed allocation among COVID-19 confirmed cases to use them until beds become available.

The city's three public health centers will screen residents, monitor them, provide meals and supplies, and handle transportation to dedicated hospitals.

Additionally, as about 31.4% of the recently increased confirmed cases have preceding confirmed family members, indicating family transmission, the city will utilize 101 safe accommodation rooms, which is 65 more than the existing 36 Kintex camping site caravan safe accommodation rooms.

The safe accommodations provide completely isolated self-quarantine spaces for family members other than the initial confirmed patient, and have been operated since September 22 to prevent additional infections and 'n-th' transmissions caused by contact among family members when rooms are insufficient or families have many cohabitants.

From the 14th to the 22nd, a total of 73 COVID-19 confirmed patients in Goyang City were identified as not yet transferred.

Mayor Lee Jae-jun of Goyang City said, "As the third wave of COVID-19 becomes a reality, the shortage of hospital beds can directly lead to negligence in managing confirmed cases and family infections," adding, "I sincerely thank the officials and students of Joongbu University who made this difficult decision for our city despite the challenging situation."

Meanwhile, Goyang City is the first basic local government to operate university dormitories as safe accommodations.

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