South Korea: Concerns raised amid coronavirus sickbed shortage
South Korea
As third wave surge of coronavirus infections raised concerns of bed shortage, South Korea on Saturday ordered hospitals to secure beds for critical COVID-19 patients, Yonhap news agency said.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 1,053 infections of the new coronavirus, a record fourth consecutive day of more than 1,000 cases.
South Korea has been able to keep the mortality rate low. It has recorded 659 COVID-19 deaths out of 48, 570 infections. This has been possible due to aggressive tracing and testing which minimised strain on hospitals
The mitigation efforts made the country a global success story when many nations saw soaring infections, prompting wide lockdowns.
But the recent surge - stemming from widespread clusters across the country rather than the large, isolated outbreaks of the first two waves - has caused a severe shortage of hospital beds.
The health ministry's Central Disaster Management Headquarters on Friday ordered major general hospitals and national university hospitals to secure 1% of its licensed beds as dedicated beds for serious COVID patients, Yonhap reported on Saturday citing hospitals and regional governments.
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Health ministry officials could not be immediately reached.
(With Reuters inputs)