FIRE STATION'S NEGATIVE PRESSURE STRETCHERS

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Negative pressure ambulances are needed to prevent COVID-19 from spreading during the transportation of patients. However, it's difficult to acquire enough of these ambulances they are too expensive. Instead, some fire stations have introduced negative pressure stretchers that are cheaper.

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An ambulance carries a suspected COVID-19 patient. The inside of the vehicle is coated with a sheet of transparent plastic film. The patient lies down in a long, cylindrical container. It is equipped with a special negative pressure filter that blocks the air inside from leaking out.

[Soundbite] KIM DONG-HYUN(CHUNCHEON FIRE STATION) : "In the case of patients who are unable to walk on their own, we carry them down on ordinary stretchers and then move them onto negative pressure ones."

Used for transporting patients with infectious diseases, a negative pressure ambulance costs 200 million won. Due to the high price, these special ambulances are owned by only three out of 19 fire and disaster headquarters across the nation. Just six negative pressure ambulances belong to Seoul, Gyeonggi-do Province and Gwangju. This is why negative pressure stretchers are being used as an alternative. The stretchers are cheaper than the ambulances with prices ranging between ten million and 20 million won. Fire stations nationwide have 94 negative pressure stretchers. Gangwon-do and Gyeonggi-do provinces each own 20 negative pressure stretchers, the largest number across the nation.

[Soundbite] KWON HAK-JOO(GANGWON-DO FIRE & DISASTER HQ) : "After experiencing the SARS and MERS epidemics, we purchased 20 negative pressure stretchers with a budget of 200 million won, predicting that infectious disease outbreaks would occur in a shorter cycle."

Fire and disaster headquarters of Seoul, and the two provinces plan to purchase more of these stretchers, which have proven useful during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.