<Anchor>
As the number of patients continues to increase, let's take a look at whether our medical system is prepared for it, and whether the current quarantine measures can overcome this crisis. What we need to focus on the most right now is the management of critically ill patients.
In the past month, the number of patients has doubled, exceeding 800 for the first time. So, in order to increase the number of treatment beds, the government has designated two additional hospitals dedicated to treating only COVID-19 patients. One of our reporters is out there. Let's connect on the spot.
Reporter Park Soo-jin, just because the government designates it doesn't mean that patients can receive it right away, so are you preparing for it now?
<Reporter>
Yes, it is. The place I am in is Hyemin Hospital in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul.
This place was designated as a base hospital by the government on the 6th.
There are about 250 beds here, and from the end of this month, all beds will be used to treat corona patients.
I took a tour of the hospital in advance today (the 8th).
From that day on, the hospital installed a negative pressure ward on the first floor of the main building and started accepting corona patients.
When I arrived, corona confirmed patients were arriving one after another.
This is a negative pressure ward where Corona moderate patients are hospitalized.
As you can see, the nurses are checking the patient's condition in real time, and the patients are hospitalized through the glass.
It's only been two days since the ward opened.
There are already 14 patients in the hospital.
Other wards are also being converted to corona-only wards, which is expected to take at least 2-3 weeks.
[Kim Byung-gwan / Director of Hyemin Hospital: Critical patients can have up to 22 beds, and semi-severe patients are about 20. And it seems that more than 100 beds for moderately ill patients will be prepared. On the 27th, it seems that the entire hospital will be transformed into a hospital that can see corona patients.]
<Anchor>
It is not easy to keep up with the rapid increase in patients, but the number of patients dying while waiting for a bed is increasing recently. .
<Reporter>
Yes, it is. Yesterday, the daily death toll was 63.
The average daily death toll last month was 26, which is more than double the number.
Most importantly, there is a shortage of hospital beds.
80% of the confirmed cases are concentrated in the metropolitan area, and in this metropolitan area, 860 people have been waiting for more than a day, and 29 people have died while waiting for a hospital bed in the last 5 weeks.
At the postpartum care center in Gyeonggi-do, five people, including newborns, were confirmed, and it is known that two newborns have not yet been assigned a bed and are waiting.
The government said, "We can withstand up to 10,000 confirmed cases, but if it exceeds that, additional medical adjustments are necessary."
(Video coverage: Yoo Dong-hyuk, video editing: Yoon Tae-ho)
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