GWANGJU CITY TO HELP TREATING DAEGU PATIENTS

[Anchor Lead]

The Gwangju City government is offering COVID-19 patients from Daegu a helping hand by providing hospitals and treatment amid a shortage of facilities and staff in the southeastern city. The details regarding patient transportation and timeline will be discussed between the governments of the two cities.

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​All 240 sickbeds at this hospital in Daegu designated to treat coronavirus patients are occupied. The situation is similar at other hospitals in the city. As of Sunday, about 65 percent of infected patients in Daegu were waiting to be hospitalized due to lack of space.

[Soundbite] KWON YOUNG-JIN(DAEGU MAYOR(MAR. 1)) : "As the number of coronavirus patients keeps rising nationwide, it's clear that there are limitations in treating them at hospitals in isolated wards."

The Gwangju City government is offering assistance to the coronavirus patients from Daegu by providing medical facilities to them. Daegu patients with mild symptoms will be transported to Chonnam National University Bitgoeul Hospital and Chonnam National University Gwangju 2nd Geriatric Hospital to undergo treatment. The two hospitals have up to 120 available sickbeds. Gwangju will provide half of them to patients from Daegu, while the remaining ones will be reserved for local patients. To prevent additional spread of the virus, the patients' relatives will not be allowed to accompany them during transportation.

[Soundbite] LEE YONG-SEOP(GWANGJU MAYOR(MAR. 1)) : "We believe this is the path we should take and this is what Gwangju is about. We will also prepare thoroughly so that patients from our city can receive medical help without any problems."

Gwangju will discuss the details of the transportation process and patients' treatment with the Daegu City government and Korea's CDC.