60 Medical Staff Deployed to Care Facilities... 50 Public Health Doctors Dispatched to Tertiary Hospitals (Update)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] The government has decided to expedite the additional COVID-19 vaccinations (booster shots) for workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced on the 26th that, due to the recent increase in confirmed cases among the elderly and the rise in cluster infections in long-term care hospitals and facilities, they will complete the additional COVID-19 vaccinations for workers and residents of these facilities ahead of schedule.

As of midnight on the same day, the number of people eligible for additional vaccinations in long-term care hospitals and facilities was 466,648, of whom 285,909 (61.3%) had completed the booster shots.

Lee Gi-il, the 1st Controller of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, stated, "We will receive support from the Ministry of National Defense with 60 military medical personnel (20 teams), including military doctors and nursing staff, to administer additional COVID-19 vaccinations to elderly residents in long-term care facilities." He added, "The military medical personnel will be concentrated in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas, where long-term care facilities are concentrated but vaccination rates are low due to a shortage of vaccinators. They plan to support booster shots for those who are four months past their second dose."

Lee, the 2nd Controller, explained, "Long-term care hospitals already have medical staff, so once vaccines are supplied, vaccinations can proceed immediately. However, long-term care facilities face some difficulties." He continued, "There are many such facilities, but since contracted doctors are external, there is effectively no vaccination personnel."

He emphasized, "Currently, each city, county, and district is either sending contracted doctors or forming visiting vaccination teams to administer vaccines. We have formed 20 vaccination teams with support from the Ministry of National Defense and will focus vaccinations on long-term care facilities in Gyeonggi Province and Seoul starting today."

Due to the increase in confirmed cases in the metropolitan area, the bed occupancy rate at tertiary general hospitals treating critically ill patients has risen. To alleviate the burden on these hospitals, the government plans to dispatch public medical personnel (public health doctors with specialist qualifications).

The dispatched personnel will be a total of 50 public health doctors specializing in internal medicine, anesthesiology and pain medicine, among others. They will be assigned to 21 metropolitan tertiary general hospitals with COVID-19 severe patient beds that have requested public health doctor dispatch.

The government will also open additional residential treatment centers mainly in the metropolitan area, where the outbreak is severe, to secure about 2,000 additional beds.

Seoul is currently reviewing facilities and establishing detailed plans for 650 beds, Gyeonggi Province will immediately open 800 beds (Pyeongtaek Hotel) awaiting opening, and Incheon plans to open 96 beds (Seo-gu Hotel) currently awaiting opening. The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters is also preparing to open about 400 beds in the metropolitan and Chungcheong regions.

To ease the burden on infectious disease-dedicated hospital beds, metropolitan area base residential treatment centers will also be established. Seoul currently operates four base residential treatment centers with 530 beds but needs expansion, and Gyeonggi and Incheon also require new designations of base residential treatment centers.

Lee, the 1st Controller, added, "Base residential treatment centers are not regular hospital rooms but facilities that require more medical functions than residential treatment centers, established during the third wave." He added, "There are no mobile negative pressure rooms, but some medical treatments such as X-rays are possible."

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