1310 Patients Waiting for Hospital Beds in 'Critical Situation'... Government to Announce Measures on the 29th

New Supervariant Emerges in Africa

On the 26th, as the number of severe COVID-19 patients rapidly increased, raising concerns about a shortage of hospital beds, citizens visiting the screening clinic set up at Songpa-gu Public Health Center in Seoul are waiting to get tested. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporters Chunhee Lee and Hyunui Cho] As the number of severe COVID-19 patients hospitalized continues to record over 600 daily, the number of confirmed cases waiting for hospital beds has surpassed 1,300.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 26th, as of midnight, the number of new COVID-19 confirmed cases was 3,901, marking the second consecutive day with figures in the 3,900 range. The weekly average of locally transmitted cases rose to 3,380, indicating that the rapidly increasing number of confirmed cases is pushing the healthcare response capacity to its limits.

The number of severe patients currently hospitalized increased by 5 from the previous day to 617, setting a new daily record. The intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy rate, as of 5 p.m. the previous day, was 72.8%, with 826 of the 1,135 beds nationwide in use. In particular, the Seoul metropolitan area showed occupancy rates of 86.4% in Seoul, 83.5% in Incheon, and 82.3% in Gyeonggi Province, with 84.5% (587 out of 695 beds) occupied overall. Some emergency rooms in the metropolitan area have all negative pressure isolation beds fully occupied, making it impossible to accommodate additional patients. Consequently, the number of patients waiting for beds in the metropolitan area increased to 1,310. This is the first time the number of patients waiting for beds has exceeded 1,000.

The government had initially planned to announce comprehensive strengthened quarantine measures on the 26th but postponed it to the 29th. Kwon Deok-cheol, the 1st Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (Minister of Health and Welfare), presided over the Central Disaster Management Headquarters meeting that morning and stated, "We are carefully discussing the expansion of the vaccination certificate and negative test confirmation system (quarantine pass) among related ministries." Currently, authorities are reportedly focusing on various quarantine strengthening measures, including applying the quarantine pass to restaurants and cafes, not exempting children and adolescents from the quarantine pass, and setting validity periods for the quarantine pass.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a special meeting following reports of a variant virus stronger than the Delta variant. This variant, which carries 32 mutations, is highly contagious and raises concerns about vaccine evasion. The United Kingdom and Israel have consecutively imposed travel restrictions on African countries where the new variant was discovered.

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