"Transferable Critical Patients During Games Moved South of Chungcheong Region to Secure Capacity in Capital Area"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] As the spread of COVID-19 continues mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, the occupancy rate of intensive care unit (ICU) beds is reaching a critical level, prompting health authorities to secure capacity by transferring patients.

On the morning of the 15th, Lee Chang-jun, head of the Patient Bed Management Team at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, stated in a briefing, "We are prioritizing the transfer and admission of recovering patients from tertiary general hospitals operating only severe patient beds to regional dedicated hospitals that have both moderate and severe patient beds." He added, "Among the regional dedicated hospitals in Gyeonggi Province, patients in the ICU who can be transferred to areas south of the Chungcheong region with available bed capacity are being moved to secure ICU bed capacity in the metropolitan area."

Continuous expansion of beds is also underway. Lee said, "While making efforts to secure more ICU beds in tertiary general hospitals, we are also trying to enhance the medical response capacity in the metropolitan area through bed sharing with the Chungcheong region and areas south of Chungcheong." Regarding the regional dedicated hospitals, which play the most important role by treating both moderate and severe patients, he added, "We plan to newly designate regional dedicated hospitals in places like Jeonbuk, where none currently exist, and to designate and operate three more regional dedicated hospitals in the metropolitan area."

In this context, he also mentioned, "Transfer is crucial for the efficient operation of beds not only for severe patients but also among hospitals, residential treatment centers, and home care." He said discussions are underway to establish a transfer system. Through this, they plan to fundamentally resolve transfer issues and will announce separate measures accordingly.

However, the authorities drew a line against calls for temporarily strengthening quarantine measures to curb the spread of infection. Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Team at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, emphasized, "At this time, rather than strengthening overall social distancing measures, we need to focus on enhancing quarantine measures in vulnerable facilities where the elderly are being infected collectively and expedite additional vaccinations." He explained that the recent surge is not due to an increase in the total number of confirmed cases but rather due to increased severe cases among the elderly with waning vaccine effectiveness, vulnerable facilities such as nursing hospitals and care centers, and unvaccinated elderly populations.

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