COVID-19 Severe Patients Transferred to General ICU Beds for Treatment After a Certain Period

Ministry of Health and Welfare Reviews Plans to Revise COVID-19 Critical Patient Admission Criteria

Negative Pressure Intensive Care Unit

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] On the 7th, quarantine authorities announced that they are considering measures to reduce the length of stay for severe COVID-19 patients in dedicated hospital beds. Since the number of new confirmed cases has increased since last month, the number of severe patients has also risen sharply, leading to the judgment that hospital beds need to be used more efficiently.

Yoon Tae-ho, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' quarantine team, said at a back briefing on the 7th, "There is an assessment that the length of stay for severe patients in Korea is longer compared to foreign countries," adding, "While increasing available beds is important when COVID-19 patients surge, there is also a way to increase turnover by reducing the length of stay."

Asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients are discharged within a short period, usually within a week, and at most within 2 to 3 weeks after isolation is lifted. Severe patients are hospitalized for a much longer period to receive treatment. Most cases involve elderly patients or those with underlying conditions worsening to a severe state, with an average hospitalization period reported to be about a month. Some patients who battle the illness for a long time remain hospitalized for several months.

Yoon explained, "There are cases where COVID-19 treatment is complete, but patients remain in dedicated COVID-19 intensive care beds because their existing underlying conditions have not been resolved, or they meet the criteria for isolation release and can be transferred to general intensive care units but are not moved due to concerns about possible infections," adding, "To address this, semi-intensive care beds have been created, and along with this, the criteria for hospitalization are also being revised."

Since last month, the government has responded belatedly to the surge in severe patients by securing cooperation from large private hospitals, increasing the number of dedicated severe patient beds to 635 as of the 4th. About 470 beds are currently in use, so there is still some capacity, but the government plans to proactively prepare by revising hospitalization criteria in advance. Considering the characteristic of COVID-19 that the possibility of infecting others significantly decreases after a certain period even if isolation release criteria are not met, it is expected that patients will be transferred to general beds after a certain period of hospitalization.

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