<Anchor> We



informed you that there are people waiting to be hospitalized even after being confirmed for Corona 19, but it is a big problem that there are few critically ill beds left.



Our medical reporter Dong-chan Jo covered the current situation and what alternatives could be in detail.



<Reporter>



There are only 43 beds in the country and 12 in the metropolitan area where critically ill patients with Corona 19 can be hospitalized.



First of all, the quarantine authorities plan to secure up to twice as many beds for critically ill patients with 177 COVID-19 patients.



[Yoon Tae-ho/Head of the Central Accident Control Headquarters: We want to secure up to 308 treatment beds for critically ill patients by December 20, and up to 331 by the end of this year.]



As one of those plans, 50 National Medical Centers at Seoul National University Hospital 30 beds. The plan to build a new modular hospital, that is, a prefab mobile hospital, is being discussed.



However, opinions differ on whether it will be possible to smoothly supply and receive medical personnel dedicated to critically ill patients.



An official from the quarantine authorities said that even though the number of new confirmed cases per day would not exceed 1,000, the number of critically ill beds needed would increase to 400 at the level of 1,000.



According to the government's plan, even if 330 critically ill beds are secured by the end of the year, it may be insufficient.



The Central Clinical Committee for New Infectious Diseases said that the prejudice toward critically ill patients with Corona 19 is further fueling the shortage of intensive care units.



It is that there are many cases in which critically ill patients with Corona 19, who have decided that medical staff can move to a general hospital room, unnecessarily long stay in the dedicated intensive care unit as the symptoms improve and the virus has disappeared.



If the critical patient can move to a general ward according to medical judgment, the efficiency of the critically ill bed can be improved and the shortage can be resolved to some extent.