SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea has reported 1,062 new cases of coronavirus, its third consecutive day of more than 1,000, as Seoul authorities warn that hospital beds are scarce.
The city of Seoul said a 60-year-old COVID-19 patient died at his home on Tuesday after officials failed to find him a hospital bed for days. The city said “explosive growth” in patients this month has caused an “overload on administrative and medical systems.”
Figures released Friday by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency raised the number of national cases to 47,515.
The death toll rose to 645 after 11 more patients died overnight. Among 12,888 active patients, at least 246 were in serious or critical condition, the highest number since the onset of the pandemic.
Son Young-rae, a senior Health Ministry official, said there were only 49 intensive care beds left for COVID-19 patients nationwide, with only four in the capital area. He said health authorities plan to secure about 170 more beds in the ICU in early January by designating more hospitals for COVID-19 treatment.
Health authorities are also expanding a massive testing program to find and isolate virus carriers more quickly. Son said the country tested more than 80,000 people on Thursday alone and plans to test patients and workers in long-term care centers for a week or two.
South Korea plans to secure more than 84 million doses of coronavirus vaccines. It would be enough to cover 44 million people in a population of about 51 million.
Yang Dong-gyo, a senior KDCA official, said he expects to vaccinate between 60% and 70% of the population by November 2021, before the start of the new flu season.
More than 760 of the new cases came from the densely populated metropolitan area of Seoul, where health workers are struggling to curb transmissions linked to various places, including hospitals, long-term care centers, restaurants, churches, schools and units. of the army.
The viral resurgence has put pressure on the government to raise restrictions on social distancing to maximum levels, which policymakers have resisted for weeks over economic issues. These measures would possibly ban meetings of more than ten people, close hundreds of thousands of non-essential businesses and require companies to have more workers from home.
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region:
– The number of COVID-19 infections from a cluster off the north coast of Sydney continued to grow on Friday and the strain appeared to originate in the United States, authorities said. Tests on Thursday and early Friday found 28 new infections. Several had attended the Avalon Beach RSL Club on Dec. 11 and a nearby grass bowling club called Avalon Bowlo on Dec. 13, said Kerry Chant, head of health for the state of New Wales. of the South. In addition to 250,000 residents of Sydney’s local government area on the northern beaches, they were advised on Thursday to work from home and stay home for as long as possible for three days. Others were advised to avoid traveling to the area. Authorities have not yet identified the source of the cluster, but next week New South Wales will tighten hotel quarantine rules for international aircrews flying between Sydney and the United States. Australia’s largest city had spent 12 consecutive days without community transmission until Wednesday, when a driver carrying international aircrews with a van to and from Sydney airport tested positive. His strain was also from the United States. Australian states have responded to the Sydney cluster by introducing various travel restrictions. The state of Western Australia, which has not had a case of community transmission since April 11, requires all New South Wales travelers to quarantine hotels for 14 days.
___
Follow AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak