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SEOUL: South Korea’s top priority is to secure more hospital beds to handle a record surge in coronavirus cases and mitigate the corresponding increase in deaths, the country’s prime minister said on Wednesday (December 16).
The Korea Disease Prevention and Control Agency (KDCA) reported 1,078 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Tuesday, the highest since the start of the pandemic.
The latest number came three days after the daily count surpassed 1,000 for the first time since South Korea confirmed its first coronavirus infection in January.
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The KDCA also reported 12 more deaths, the second day of double-digit deaths after a record 13 the day before in a country that had kept cases and overall deaths relatively low through aggressive monitoring and testing.
The number of serious cases has more than doubled in the past two weeks to reach a record 226 on Wednesday.
Only three intensive-care beds remained in the Seoul metropolitan area with a population of nearly 26 million, authorities said.
“The top priority is to get more hospital beds,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting, according to a transcript. “All administrative power must be mobilized so that no patient waits more than a day before being assigned to her bed.”
He said the government is making every effort to implement current social distancing rules in an effort to avoid having to impose the highest level of restrictions, which would effectively be the country’s first blockade.
Schools in the Seoul metropolitan area closed for a month starting Tuesday. Companies could allow only essential workers in offices and gatherings of more than 10 people would be prohibited under such a shutdown.
The government is reluctant to impose Level 3 restrictions because of the “irrevocable pain” it would cause, Chung said Tuesday.
Health authorities have blamed persistent violations of distancing rules for worsening some of the recent outbreaks, including churches that violate the ban on in-person services and businesses that continue to operate overnight, despite the rules. prohibiting in-person service after 9pm
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