S. Korea to reduce no. of hospital beds designated for COVID-19 while vaccination for...

S. Korea to reduce no. of hospital beds designated for COVID-19 while vaccination for infants to roll out on Feb.

"방역지표 안정적" 코로나 지정병상 3천900개 단계조정 영유아 예방접종 개시

As the nation is seeing a decline in the number of new cases of coronavirus, the health authorities are set to cut the number of hospital beds for COVID patients.
Vaccination programs for infants will also be rolled out next month.
Our Lee Rae-hyun tells us more.

South Korea is soon going to reduce the number of hospital beds set aside for people with COVID-19.

"Considering the recent drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases, the government is going to reduce the number of hospital beds for COVID patients to around 3,900 from the second week of February."

3-thousand-9 hundred beds are reportedly enough for 140-thousand new daily cases.
That would be a decline from the current number of such beds, which is a little over 5-thousand-8-hundred.
The decision came as the rate of COVID spread declined for a third week in a row.
The utilization rate of hospital beds for severely ill patients is a little over 20 percent, which is a level considered stable.

On the vaccine front, doses will become available for babies as young as six months starting February 13th.
So far, they've only been for kids as young as five.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Friday that this is to protect infants from the COVID-19 resurgence this winter, which has seen the emergence of new variants.
The youngest children will get three doses of the Pfizer vaccine in intervals of eight weeks.
The vaccines will be available at one thousand government designated hospitals, which will be listed on South Korea's COVID-19 vaccination homepage next Monday.
Reservations will be available from that date online and by phone.

Meanwhile, the health authorities announced Friday that short-term travel from China will continue to be restricted until the end of February due to concerns that the Lunar New Year holiday in China may have worsened the spread of COVID-19.
All passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau will have to submit a negative test taken no more than 48 hours before their arrival, and will have to take another test once they get to Korea.
The officials left open the possibility of relaxing those rules sooner in Febaruary if it becomes clear that China’s COVID-19 situation is improving.
Lee Rae-hyun, Arirang News.

#SouthKorea #COVID19 #Arirang_News

2023-01-27, 21:00 (KST)