Government: "Even After Lifting Social Distancing, Medical Response for High-Risk Groups Is Being Strengthened"

COVID-19 Treatment Administered to About 67,000 Patients Over 2 Weeks
Mobile Task Force Teams for Care Facilities Increased from 73 to 186

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] The government announced that it will continue to promote medical responses for high-risk groups.

On the 20th, Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Division at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, said, "Although social distancing has been lifted, medical responses for high-risk groups such as the elderly are continuously being strengthened."

First, the government plans to continuously expand outpatient clinics that can treat confirmed COVID-19 patients' symptoms as well as underlying diseases. As of today, there are 6,305 outpatient clinics nationwide.

The government is also strengthening management of high-risk patients in infection-vulnerable facilities such as nursing hospitals and nursing facilities. The government is prioritizing the supply of oral COVID-19 treatments to nursing hospitals to ensure timely treatment. Nursing facilities are also being improved to allow immediate prescription of oral treatments through home treatment management medical institutions. Oral treatments can only be prescribed at medical institutions with internal medicine specialists among intensive care medical institutions, medical consultation centers, respiratory specialty clinics, designated respiratory medical institutions, and outpatient clinics. Son said, "During the second week of April, a total of 67,000 people were administered injectable and oral treatments combined."

Furthermore, since the 5th, the government has been operating a mobile task force for nursing facilities to treat elderly and underlying disease patients confirmed with COVID-19 where no doctors are stationed. The mobile task force, consisting of at least one doctor and one nurse, visits nursing facilities to conduct face-to-face examinations for COVID-19 and underlying diseases.

Currently, the nationwide mobile task force consists of 134 medical institutions and 186 teams. It started with 73 teams from 45 medical institutions on the 5th and has more than doubled. So far, 834 people have received treatment from the mobile task force, and 160 prescriptions for oral treatments have been issued.

The mobile task force is temporarily operating until the 30th but the period may be extended depending on the situation. A Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters official stated, "We will review whether to extend the operation period of the mobile task force considering the status of confirmed cases and the results of the mobile task force's operation."

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