[Briefing] Seoul City bans meetings with more than 5 people'River' "Severe bed security"

As the city of Seoul continued the fierce spread of Corona 19, it took out a strong deterrence card again.

The'prohibition of gatherings of more than 5 people', which has been issued by local governments in the metropolitan area such as Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon, reflects the will to put out urgent fires such as shortages of patient beds by calming the virus spread.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on the 21st, an administrative order banning meetings of five or more people in Seoul from 0:00 on the 23rd is enforced.

The order to prohibit groups of 5 or more people is a stronger measure than the'ban of groups of 10 or more' applied in the third stage of social distancing.

It is to ensure that no more than 5 people gather indoors or outdoors, and only allow meetings of 4 people or less.

This measure seems to be the strongest measure of COVID-19 deterrence so far, in terms of reducing the contact between people at the source and lowering the indoor density and closeness that increases the risk of infection in winter.

In recent years, the proportion of infections through contact with infected people in the vicinity is growing more and more than group infections through multi-use facilities, so the authorities are expecting immediate effectiveness.

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This'no gathering' action by the authorities is a broad and powerful measure that applies to all citizens.

As it is different from the collective ban imposed on some industries, complaints and backlash may be great in terms of infringing on individual freedom.

With fewer meetings, the damage to self-employed people, such as restaurants and pubs, is hard.

However, the reason that the quarantine authorities have taken strong measures up to the end of this is because there is no trick to respond to the spread of Corona 19.

Last week (December 13-19), the average number of new confirmed cases per day in Seoul was 360.9, an increase of 16.1 times compared to 22.4 people 10 weeks ago (October 4-10).

In Seoul alone, the number of confirmed patients per day is threatening 500 people, and the shortage of beds is getting worse day by day.

From the 19th, the hospital bed dedicated to severely ill patients in Seoul ran out, and patients who died waiting at home because there were no beds to enter.

, the quarantine authorities urged 17 national university hospitals and 42 private general hospitals to secure more than 1% of licensed beds as treatment beds for severely ill patients in response to the shortage of beds. Ordered.

In addition, it was decided to add a total of 318 critical care beds by the 26th.

However, as the rate of increase in confirmed cases is getting faster, the rate of bed expansion has not been able to keep up, so it is difficult to resolve the problem of bed shortages in the near future.

In particular, as the proportion of elderly confirmed patients with underlying diseases increases, the severity of the bed problem is increasing as it often progresses rapidly from mild symptoms to severe at first.

In the end, as it takes time to equip the system, such as securing enough beds, there is no choice but to slow the increase in confirmed cases even a little.

In this situation, it is interpreted that the'ban of gatherings' measure was decided as the most effective alternative to suppress the spread by blocking the chance of contacting infected people without raising social distancing to the third level.