Nursing Hospitals Suspend 'In-Person Visits' Again... Administrative Order to Secure 1,435 COVID Beds

Preparing for 300,000 Daily Cases... Expanding One-Stop Medical Institutions to 10,000
70 Additional Temporary Screening Clinics Established... 940,000 Treatment Doses Procured

[Image source=Yonhap News]

As the spread of the Omicron subvariant BA.5 progresses faster than expected, the government has decided to secure an additional 4,000 dedicated COVID-19 hospital beds and suspend in-person visits at nursing hospitals and facilities. The number of temporary screening clinics, which had been reduced to only four nationwide, will also be increased back to 70.

On the 20th, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters for COVID-19, chaired by Lee Ki-il, the First Senior Coordinator (Vice Minister of Health and Welfare), held a video conference at the Government Seoul Office with central government ministries and 17 metropolitan local governments to discuss ▲additional measures for quarantine and medical response in preparation for the COVID-19 resurgence ▲current COVID-19 status and measures in major local governments. They announced these decisions. This comes just one week after releasing a plan to expand the fourth vaccine dose eligibility to those aged 50 and above and to establish a stable medical response system for the resurgence.

The quarantine authorities changed their initial plan to reactivate a total of 1,405 hospital beds in preparation for 200,000 new daily cases, deciding instead to secure an additional 4,000 beds. To this end, they proactively issued administrative orders for 1,435 beds on the same day and will gradually reactivate beds based on bed occupancy rates.

For nursing hospitals and facilities, psychiatric hospitals and facilities, all workers will undergo weekly polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, and only non-contact visits will be allowed instead of the currently permitted in-person visits to block external infection sources. To protect vulnerable facilities, local governments will strengthen on-site responses by operating dedicated response teams, and if a resident tests positive, antiviral treatments will be actively administered to prevent severe illness.

The 'fast track' system, targeting those aged 60 and above, immunocompromised individuals, and residents of nursing hospitals and facilities, will be expanded to include patients with underlying conditions and residents of psychiatric hospitals and facilities for the disabled, enabling rapid processing of diagnosis, prescription, and hospitalization within a day. The number of 'one-stop clinics' capable of handling COVID-19 testing, treatment, and prescriptions will be expanded from the current 6,500 to 10,000 within this month.

Regarding COVID-19 therapeutics, an additional 340,000 doses will be introduced in the second half of this year and 600,000 doses in the first half of next year, totaling 940,000 doses. The government plans to respond to the epidemic situation by early procurement or shortening delivery schedules for additional purchases if necessary.

Furthermore, 55 temporary screening clinics will be installed and operated in the metropolitan area and 15 in non-metropolitan areas, with weekend testing expanded to make testing more accessible to the public. To quickly detect newly emerging variants such as BA.2.75, the number of variant surveillance institutions will be increased from 63 to 105, and variant analysis will be enhanced by adding immunological and bioinformatics analyses to assess variant risk.

Supply management of diagnostic kits will also be strengthened. A smartphone application will enable real-time monitoring of diagnostic kit stocks at convenience stores nationwide, and the requirement to register as a diagnostic kit seller will be temporarily waived until September 30, allowing all convenience stores to sell kits.

Meanwhile, to promote daily quarantine practices based on public participation, the government has issued guidelines for high-risk groups to minimize unnecessary outings and meetings, and even when unavoidable, to avoid visiting or dining indoors in crowded, enclosed, or close-contact (3Cs) settings and to refrain from physical contact.

To create conditions for voluntary social distancing, the government and public institutions will lead by example by mandating indoor mask-wearing at all times, promoting remote work and virtual meetings, refraining from unnecessary gatherings and events, and limiting company dinners. The private sector is also encouraged to strengthen cooperation and support so that systems such as sick leave, paid leave, remote work, and online classes are established, allowing people to rest without going to work, school, or academies when ill.

As of midnight on the day, the number of new COVID-19 cases was 76,402, an increase of 1.90 times compared to 40,252 cases on the 13th a week earlier, and 3.95 times compared to 19,360 cases on the 6th two weeks earlier.

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