[2025 Audit] Minister Jeong Eun-kyung: Health and Medical 'Serious' Alert to Be Downgraded Next Week

"Measures Prepared in Anticipation of Lifting the Alert"

Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyung announced on the 13th that the health and medical crisis alert level, currently set at "serious," is planned to be downgraded next week.

On the 30th of last month, Jeong Eun-kyung, Minister of Health and Welfare, is reporting on her duties at the plenary meeting of the Special Committee on Pension Reform held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

Minister Jeong attended the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee audit that day and stated, "We will hold a crisis assessment meeting either this week or next week," adding, "We plan to downgrade or lift the 'serious' level of the health and medical crisis alert next week."

She further added, "We have also prepared measures in anticipation of the alert being lifted."

Previously, the government raised the health and medical disaster alert to its highest "serious" level for the first time on February 23 last year, following the mass resignations of medical residents protesting the expansion of medical school admissions. If the alert is lifted next week, the government's emergency medical response system, which has been in place for one year and eight months, will come to an end. During this period, the government temporarily raised medical fees and injected health insurance funds to maintain the emergency medical system.

Once the health and medical crisis level is eased from "serious," the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters for Collective Action by Doctors, which has been operated by the government since February last year, is also expected to be dissolved.

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