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SEOUL: More than 40 percent of new coronavirus cases in South Korea are in people over the age of 60, contributing in part to an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients who are seriously or critically ill, health authorities said on Wednesday (September 2).
South Korea is fighting a second wave of infection, centered in the capital Seoul and the surrounding areas that are home to 25 million people.
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The Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 267 new cases as of midnight Tuesday, a slight increase from the previous day. Overall, South Korea has reported 20,449 cases and 326 deaths.
The number of seriously or critically ill patients stood at 124 on Wednesday, Deputy Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said in a briefing, out of just nine reported on Aug. 18.
“The number in critical condition is constantly increasing,” he said.
South Korea was the site of the first major outbreak outside of China earlier this year, but a large percentage of those infected at the time were relatively young, possibly helping to keep the death toll in the country relatively low, they said. experts.
The surge in cases in the past three weeks has depleted medical facilities, with less than 3 percent of hospital beds, or just nine, available for critical cases in the Seoul metropolitan area, up from 22 percent a year ago. 10 days, the Health Ministry said.
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The government is working to secure more beds with the expectation that the number of serious cases will continue to rise because many of the new patients are in their 60s, Kim said.
Only social distancing can reduce the number of new infections, he said, urging residents to cancel any trips and stay home as much as possible.
Social distancing measures imposed to mitigate the rise in coronavirus cases will hit Asia’s fourth-largest economy, the government said on Tuesday, after unprecedented restrictions took effect in and around Seoul.
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