100 Daily Deaths and 1,000 Critical Cases Feared... "Implement Temporary Social Distancing"

Statement from the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases and Others: "Securing Response Capability through an Emergency Pause"

On the 13th, as the spread of COVID-19 continues, the temporary screening clinic at Seoul Plaza is crowded with citizens. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Since the start of the ‘gradual return to daily life (With Corona)’ policy, COVID-19 prevention indicators have been rapidly deteriorating day by day. Amid concerns that the situation could escalate to 100 daily deaths and 1,000 critically ill patients hospitalized, urgent voices from the medical field are calling for a temporary suspension of the With Corona policy.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 13th, all COVID-19 related indicators have shown a sharp increase since the beginning of the With Corona policy. Since the 1st of last month, there have been 158,396 confirmed cases, accounting for 30.3% of the total 523,088 cumulative confirmed cases so far, and 1,444 deaths, which is 33.6% of the total 4,293 cumulative deaths. The number of critically ill patients hospitalized is 876, slightly down from 894 the previous day, but still maintaining the 800 range for six consecutive days. This figure is also 2.6 times higher than the 343 patients on the 1st of last month.

As of 5 p.m. the previous day, the nationwide intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy rate was 82.6%, continuously indicating a dangerous level. In particular, in the metropolitan area, only 109 out of 821 beds remain available, with an occupancy rate of 86.7%. Seoul and Incheon have occupancy rates of 90.6% and 92.4%, respectively, meaning virtually all available beds are in use. Due to the rapid spread in the metropolitan area, authorities have proposed transferring patients to non-metropolitan regions as one alternative, but nearby areas such as Daejeon (28 beds) and Gangwon (36 beds) are also fully occupied.

Professor Baek Soon-young, Emeritus Professor at the Catholic University School of Medicine, warned, "Typically, severe illness occurs 1 to 2 weeks after infection, followed by death 1 to 2 weeks later. Three weeks ago, daily confirmed cases were 3,000, but considering the current situation of around 7,000 cases, a scenario with 100 daily deaths and 1,000 critically ill hospitalized patients could easily occur. If the scale of the outbreak is not reduced, an uncontrollable situation may arise."

Medical staff are transferring a patient at Seoul Medical Center in Jungnang-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Reflecting this situation, there were expectations that ‘drastic measures’ such as additional restrictions on private gatherings and limits on operating hours for multi-use facilities would be implemented on the 10th.

However, the government is currently pursuing breakthroughs through vaccination, such as changing the interval for the third dose to three months, rather than imposing such measures due to concerns about impacts on the livelihood economy. Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Division at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, explained in a morning interview on KBS’s ‘Choi Kyung-young’s Strong Current Affairs’ that regarding the threshold for drastic measures, "The occupancy rates of intensive care units and semi-intensive care units are rising significantly. If the pressure increases to the point where normal treatment for severe patients becomes risky, then stronger quarantine measures will have to be considered."

The medical field is expressing its limits. The National Health and Medical Industry Labor Union held a press conference in the afternoon, stating, "It is practically difficult to establish a medical response system to prepare for With Corona in the current manner," and expressed the position that "With Corona should be temporarily paused for about two weeks to properly prepare for a prolonged battle." The union expressed concern, saying, "Efforts to expand hospital beds are ongoing, but the speed cannot keep up with the occurrence of confirmed and severe cases," and "Even home treatment is effectively neglected due to administrative limitations and a shortage of medical staff to manage home care."

Professor Jung Jae-hoon of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Gachon University School of Medicine emphasized, "While it was expected that there would be damage to quarantine during the With Corona process, the deterioration of the quarantine situation is faster than the preparation speed," and stressed, "At this point, it is necessary to take practical measures to strengthen quarantine." Regarding the government’s delay in strengthening quarantine due to concerns about the livelihood economy, he added, "This is possible only under the premise that practical compensation is feasible," and "One way to smoothly establish With Corona is through loss compensation, so if there are difficulties, they must be resolved; public benefit cannot be sacrificed."

The Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, the Korean Society of Antimicrobial Therapy, and the Korean Society for Healthcare-Associated Infection Control jointly stated in a statement that "Now is the time to pause to secure the medical system’s response capacity," urging, "Through an emergency pause, the speed of the outbreak increase should be suppressed, and social distancing should be temporarily and strongly implemented."

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