1444 COVID-19 Hospitalized Patients... Re-epidemic Begins
Concerns Over Emergency Room Crisis Due to Medical Staff Shortage and Chuseok
Government Cooperates with Local Governments... Joint Response Organization Operates
The government recently announced that it will promptly restore normal operations following temporary treatment restrictions at some emergency medical institutions. With the upcoming Chuseok holiday coinciding with a resurgence of COVID-19, concerns about an 'emergency room crisis' have emerged, prompting immediate containment efforts. Discussions with local governments have also begun to prepare for the COVID-19 resurgence.
Lee Sang-min, Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the 2nd Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, held a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting at the Government Seoul Office on the morning of the 22nd and stated, "Although temporary treatment restrictions occurred at some emergency medical institutions recently, they are currently operating normally or are expected to return to normal soon."
COVID-19 confirmed cases have been on the rise since the end of June, leading to a 'resurgence' spreading. The number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients increased from 474 in the last week of last month to 1,444 in the third week of this month. Hospitals are struggling to operate emergency rooms due to the combined effects of staff departures, including residents, and the COVID-19 outbreak. Especially during Chuseok, when general hospitals and clinics close and only emergency rooms remain open, there are growing concerns about a treatment crisis.
Minister Lee explained, "The government is closely monitoring all 408 emergency medical institutions one by one to ensure the emergency medical system operates normally. To reduce the burden on overloaded emergency rooms, we are dispersing the recently increased number of mild COVID-19 patients so they can receive treatment at local medical institutions such as provincial medical center fever clinics and COVID-19 treatment cooperative hospitals."
Minister Lee also attended the COVID-19 response meeting with vice heads of cities and provinces to discuss future measures. He said, "The government will do its best to respond to COVID-19 in cooperation with local governments by protecting high-risk groups, dispersing mild COVID-19 patients, and ensuring stable supply of treatments and self-test kits. The government will closely manage COVID-19 through the existing medical response system focusing on severe patients."
Accordingly, the government and local governments plan to operate a joint dedicated response organization to focus on managing infection-vulnerable facilities such as nursing hospitals, nursing facilities, mental health promotion facilities, and facilities for the disabled. Considering the upcoming second semester school opening, they will inspect school quarantine systems and conduct school-specific education for infection prevention. They will also monitor to ensure that more than 5 million self-test kits, whose production is increasing, are supplied without disruption within this month.
The minister emphasized that COVID-19 treatments are also being supplied normally on-site. He said, "The government has secured 3,268 million won in contingency funds to purchase more than 260,000 doses of treatments so that high-risk groups can receive prescriptions stably, and supplies have been distributed sequentially on-site since last week."
The government also intends to proceed with medical reform without delay. At the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting, Minister Lee stated, "The expert committee under the Medical Reform Special Committee held a public hearing yesterday on innovative medical supply and utilization system reform plans. Based on this, the special committee plans to announce specific first-phase medical reform implementation plans along with a five-year financial investment plan early next month."
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