HOSPITAL BED SHORTAGES WORSEN

[Anchor Lead]

As of midnight November 22nd, Korea recorded 515 critical cases of COVID-19, exceeding 500 cases for three straight days. Also, a record 804 patients were waiting to be hospitalized for more than a day. A shortage of hospital bed is growing worse as the number of new cases hover around three thousand for the sixth day. The government decided to reactivate the joint special inspection team from today to once again remind the public to keep following disease control measures.

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A hospital overseeing COVID-19 patients being treated at home. Nurses check on the patients’ condition.

[Soundbite] Kim Seon-mi(Nurse) : "What is your temperature now? Take Tylenol and I will check your condition once more in an hour or two."

Across the nation, five thousand four hundred fifty six patients are being treated at home. If their condition worsens suddenly, they are assigned a hospital bed within 30 minutes or no more than three hours and are transported there. So far, in Seoul alone more than 46 patients were hospitalized while being treated at home.

[Soundbite] Prof. Lee Jae-gap(Hallym Univ. Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital) : "I’m worried that more people will get sick and a shortage of hospital beds would occur."

The number of critically ill patients remained in the 500 level for three straight days. 86.4% of such cases are taken up by people 60 or older. The hospital bed shortage situation is growing worse as there are growing cases of elderly patients that need to be hospitalized. The ICU bed occupancy rate was around 85% in Seoul and exceeded 80% in Gyeonggi-do Province. A record eight hundred four people have been waiting to be hospitalized for more than a day. Among them 108 have not been assigned a hospital bed for more than four days. In the recent five weeks, six patients died while waiting to be admitted to a hospital. As people grow less vigilant when it comes to adhering to disease control measures, the government reactivated the joint special inspection team for a month.

[Soundbite] Kim Jae-heum(Ministry of the Interior and Safety) : "The government plans to check if people are wearing masks indoors and establishments are managing the customer entry lists properly. We plan to punish strictly the violators of key disease control regulations."

Meanwhile, more than 2.56 million doses of vaccines purchased directly from Pfizer are arriving in Korea on Monday.