GOV'T MEASURES ON SECURING ICU BEDS

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Korea reported 3,034 Covid-19 cases as of midnight on Friday. The number of ICU patients has been reached 499, hovering above 400 for more than 11 days. Concerns are rising over shortage of ICU beds in the Greater Seoul area. Only two out of every ten ICU beds are still available in the capital region. The government said they will exert all efforts to secure more beds.

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In the capital region, eight out of ten ICU beds for Covid-19 patients equipped with ventilators and cardiopulmonary bypass systems are currently occupied. With 80 percent of coronavirus patients located in the Seoul metropolitan area, hospitals in Gyeonggi-do Province and Incheon are also running out of beds quickly. There are still quite a few available beds for semi-intensive care patients whose condition could deteriorate quickly and beds at infectious disease hospitals. The number of ICU patients topped 400 on November 6 and continues to hover close to 500. Addressing concerns of rising ICU patients and how it's taking a toll on the medical system, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum held an emergency meeting with hospital chiefs in the capital region to discuss the matter. He announced ICU beds will be operated nationwide without boundaries between capital and non-capital regions. It takes more than three weeks to switch existing ICU beds to ones for critically ill Covid-19 patients. Transporting existing ICU patients from the capital region to non-capital regions can also be risky.

[Soundbite] Prof. Chon Eun-mi(Ewha Womans University Hospital) : "They deny it's an emergency situation but they are still asking the heads of hospitals in Seoul to provide more beds. Non-COVID-19 patients in the greater Seoul area cannot be transported to non-capital regions."

With the daily Covid-19 tally staying above 3,000 for days and reaching 3,034 as of Friday midnight, the surge in infections will likely be inevitable during the gradual return to normalcy.