Home Treatment Exceeds 200,000... Capacity for Intensive Management Has Room Up to 197,000 (Comprehensive)

On the 10th, amid the continued spread of COVID-19, a "Home Medicine Kit for COVID-19 Home Treatment" product is being sold at a pharmacy in downtown Seoul. As the Omicron variant spreads and tens of thousands of confirmed cases emerge daily, health authorities have shifted their response strategy to focus treatment resources on vulnerable groups. Confirmed patients undergoing home treatment, except those aged 60 and over, immunocompromised individuals, and patients in their 50s with underlying conditions, do not receive regular monitoring from medical institutions. Additionally, home treatment kits containing fever reducers and oxygen saturation monitors are not provided. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] The number of COVID-19 confirmed cases receiving home treatment has exceeded 200,000. The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced that as of midnight on the 13th, the total number of COVID-19 patients under home treatment in Korea was 214,869.

This is an increase of 15,608 from 199,261 as of midnight the previous day.

By region, Gyeonggi has 58,871 cases, Seoul 48,926, and Incheon 10,591, making the metropolitan area a total of 118,388 cases (55.1%).

Due to the recent spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the number of asymptomatic and mild cases under home treatment is rapidly increasing.

To concentrate limited medical resources on high-risk groups, the quarantine authorities have, since the 10th, divided new home treatment patients into 'intensive management group' such as those aged 60 and over, and 'general management group.' The new home treatment system conducts health monitoring twice a day only for the intensive management group.

As the existing system and the new system overlap, currently both the intensive management group and the general management group are subject to health monitoring, but from the 17th, only the intensive management group will be subject to health monitoring.

As of midnight on this day, among the 214,869 home treatment patients, about 106,000 are receiving phone monitoring from home treatment management medical institutions. This includes people who were previously receiving phone monitoring and those classified as intensive management group since the 10th.

There are a total of 665 home treatment management medical institutions capable of phone monitoring 197,000 people, and 106,000 corresponds to 53.8% of the maximum management capacity.

Considering that from the 17th the government will conduct phone monitoring only for the intensive management group, there is still room in the phone monitoring capacity.

The government has predicted that about 13.5% of new confirmed cases will be in the intensive management group.

As of midnight on this day, the number of newly classified home treatment patients is 50,768, of which 8,688 (17.1%) belong to the intensive management group.

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