S. Korea experiencing hospital bed shortage as daily COVID-19 cases continues to surge
Arirang News
2020-12-10
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하루새 사망자 8명•중환자 23명 늘어…병상부족 현실화 '비상'
Authorities here are scrambling to build hospital beds in shipping containers to ease strains on medical facilities stretched by the latest coronavirus wave.
The resurgence of infections has rekindled concerns about an acute shortage of hospital beds, prompting the city of Seoul to begin installing container beds for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Our Choi Won-jong has more.
Multiple containers are being installed outside Seoul Medical Center, hoping to ease the critical shortage of hospital beds for severely-ill COVID-19 patients.
With three beds in each, these make-shift wards can house 48 patients.
And once completed there will be around 150 additional beds.
According to the nation's Central Disease Control Headquarters on Thursday, there are currently 1-hundred-72 critically-ill patients. That figure jumped from 97 last Tuesday, almost twice as many in the space of just nine days.
With the number spiking, the hospital bed shortage has become even more of a concern.
As of Wednesday, the total number of beds for critically-ill patients was down to 51 nationwide and only three in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do Province.
This is causing more than 2-hundred 50 people a day on average to wait at home until a bed becomes available.
However, one expert says that making space for COVID-19 patients in critical condition requires a lot in a short period of time.
"In order to come up with designated room, it has to have technicality involved meaning they have to be negative pressure they have to double door they have to be completely isolated from rest of the room."
And, equipment used to treat COVID-19 cannot be shared with others, which means that patients need to have their own.
If the shortage continues to worsen... and causes shortages of hospital beds for non-COVID-19 patients, the nation has certain protocols in place that were established following the Daegu outbreak.
"We are better able to connect with other hospital throughout the nation if the person needs hospital care or critical care."
As of Thursday, the nation saw 8 additional deaths, which was the highest number of deaths per day since the beginning of the third wave.
Choi Won-jong, Arirang News.
Authorities here are scrambling to build hospital beds in shipping containers to ease strains on medical facilities stretched by the latest coronavirus wave.
The resurgence of infections has rekindled concerns about an acute shortage of hospital beds, prompting the city of Seoul to begin installing container beds for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Our Choi Won-jong has more.
Multiple containers are being installed outside Seoul Medical Center, hoping to ease the critical shortage of hospital beds for severely-ill COVID-19 patients.
With three beds in each, these make-shift wards can house 48 patients.
And once completed there will be around 150 additional beds.
According to the nation's Central Disease Control Headquarters on Thursday, there are currently 1-hundred-72 critically-ill patients. That figure jumped from 97 last Tuesday, almost twice as many in the space of just nine days.
With the number spiking, the hospital bed shortage has become even more of a concern.
As of Wednesday, the total number of beds for critically-ill patients was down to 51 nationwide and only three in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do Province.
This is causing more than 2-hundred 50 people a day on average to wait at home until a bed becomes available.
However, one expert says that making space for COVID-19 patients in critical condition requires a lot in a short period of time.
"In order to come up with designated room, it has to have technicality involved meaning they have to be negative pressure they have to double door they have to be completely isolated from rest of the room."
And, equipment used to treat COVID-19 cannot be shared with others, which means that patients need to have their own.
If the shortage continues to worsen... and causes shortages of hospital beds for non-COVID-19 patients, the nation has certain protocols in place that were established following the Daegu outbreak.
"We are better able to connect with other hospital throughout the nation if the person needs hospital care or critical care."
As of Thursday, the nation saw 8 additional deaths, which was the highest number of deaths per day since the beginning of the third wave.
Choi Won-jong, Arirang News.
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