In the metropolitan area, the utilization rate of intensive care beds for COVID-19 is approaching 80%.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Central Accident Remediation Headquarters on the 18th, as of 5 pm the previous day, 537 of 687 hospital beds for severe COVID-19 in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon are already in use, and 150 remain.
The bed utilization rate is exactly 78.2%.
By region, the utilization rate of critically ill beds in Seoul was 80.9% (279 out of 345 used), up 0.3 percentage point from the previous day's 80.6%.
The Gyeonggi region recorded 76.4% (201 out of 263), an increase of 4.2 percentage points from the previous day (72.2%), and Incheon was 72.2% (57 out of 79), a slight drop from the previous day (74.7%).
As more than 2,000 patients are coming out every day in the metropolitan area, centering on Seoul, the number of critically ill patients has also increased, accelerating the speed of bed exhaustion.
The utilization rate of intensive care beds nationwide was also 63.8% (719 out of 1,127 used), rising from the previous day (62.6%), and the number of spare beds is decreasing.
The government announced on the previous day that it would conduct an emergency evaluation when the weekly average daily intensive care unit utilization rate across the country is 75% or more, apart from the regular evaluation regarding the 'Corona 19 risk assessment'.
Depending on the evaluation result, measures such as whether to implement an emergency plan (circuit breaker) to temporarily suspend the 'step-by-step recovery of daily life' measures are decided.
The utilization rate of semi-intensive care beds for treating patients who are likely to improve or worsen from severe to severe is 59.3% nationwide, and 75.4% in the metropolitan area alone.
In particular, in the case of Incheon, all 23 beds for semi-critical patients are in use, so there is not a single bed left that can be hospitalized right away.
Infectious disease hospitals use 6,262 beds out of 10,157 nationwide (operation rate 61.7%).
The utilization rate of the life treatment center where asymptomatic and mild patients are quarantined is 53.0% nationwide as of 00:00 on the same day.
The total number of COVID-19 patients receiving home treatment is 4,272 as of 00:00 on that day.
By region, Seoul has the highest number with 2,8 people, followed by Gyeonggi with 1,823, Incheon with 157, Gangwon with 65, Chungnam with 58, Daegu with 57, Busan with 44, Gyeongnam with 24, North Chungcheong with 10 and Jeonbuk with 9. , Daejeon 8, Jeju 6, Gyeongbuk 2, Jeonnam 1
(Photo = Yonhap News)