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Today (22nd), the number of new COVID-19 cases is expected to be around 1,600. Although the number of confirmed cases has decreased somewhat, the number of cases of severe severe cases has exceeded 400 for the first time since the fourth pandemic. As the number of seriously ill patients increased, in some areas, it was also urgent to secure a bed to accommodate patients.
Correspondent Jang Se-man.
<Reporter> At
a temporary screening station in Gangnam, Seoul, the pouring rain keeps people coming to get tested while in a car.
Four employees were confirmed at a large restaurant nearby, which had a big impact on the number of people who visited the restaurant.
The number of confirmed cases fell below 2,000 in two days, but the number of severe cases increased by 18 in one day, exceeding 400 for the first time since the fourth pandemic.
It is the first time in over 7 months since the third epidemic in early January of this year that the number of patients with severe cases recorded 400.
As the number of critically ill patients increased, there were only about 270 dedicated beds across the country for inpatient treatment, one-third of the total beds.
In some areas, such as Daejeon and Chungnam, there are no empty beds at all, so critically ill patients have to be transferred to other nearby areas.
[Jeong Ki-seok/Professor at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital: Even if the average number of days of stay for severe corona patients is shortened, it is 2 weeks. (When they fill the intensive care unit) Where do the intensive care patients for all other diseases that I have seen in the intensive care unit go?]
The government is pushing for the designation of additional beds for critically ill and semi-critically ill patients.
However, the spread of the delta mutation, which is leading the fourth epidemic, is so strong that it is a question of whether it can timely secure hospital beds in non-metropolitan areas where the medical environment is relatively poor.