A number of people are concerned about a potential interruption in general medical care as a result of the government's decision this month to designate more public hospitals and around 10,000 hospital beds for Covid-19 users.

"We will increase the number of hospital beds available for coronavirus patients to ensure that treatment is available even when there are more than 10,000 new cases per day," Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum stated during a virus response meeting on Wednesday.

According to Kim, an additional 10,000 Covid-19 beds would be added to the present 15,000 beds by mid-January, bringing the total number of beds to roughly 25,000 by the end of the month.

In accordance with this strategy, the government will designate an additional 2,255 hospital beds by the end of this month and an additional 6,944 in January, resulting in a total of 24,702 Covid-19 hospital beds being made available.

In order to meet the demand, various state-owned institutions, including the National Medical Center, Seoul Medical Center, and a hospital managed by the Veterans Health Service, will be closed in order to serve only Covid-19 patients.

The pandemic indications have been quickly deteriorating since Korea proclaimed a gradual return to normalcy on November 1, according to the World Health Organization. Concentric care units (I.C.U.s) were at 79.2 percent occupancy on Wednesday, up from 45.9 percent on Nov. 1. The number of patients waiting to be assigned to a hospital bed increased from 374 to 374 in the greater Seoul region alone on November 1.

In order to slow the spread of the virus, the government has reinstated stronger social distancing restrictions, such as limiting social gatherings and business hours in most facilities, and has enlarged the sorts of places that require a vaccination pass, which became effective on December 18.

Despite these measures, the number of critical Covid-19 cases in Korea reached a new all-time high on Wednesday, reaching 1,063.

These are patients who require oxygen therapy (such as high-flow oxygen therapy), mechanical breathing (being placed on a respirator), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), or continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) (CRRT).

The number of daily Covid-19 cases in the country increased to 7,456 on Wednesday, bringing the overall number of cases to 583,065. The overall number of Covid-19 fatalities increased by 78 from the previous day, bringing the total number of fatalities to 4,906. According to the most recent forecast from the health authorities, the present epidemic is expected to intensify in the foreseeable future.

It is estimated that, if the current distancing regulations in place for the past two weeks continue, the country will see up to 8,000 new Covid-19 cases per day in late December and 4,700 cases per day in late January of the following year, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). However, if the distancing effect begins to wear off, daily infections might reach 8,400 by the end of January next year, according to the KDCA.

As of Wednesday, the government announced the latest measure of allocating additional Covid-19-designated hospital beds in order to better prepare for a scenario where daily virus cases reach 10,000, the rate of developing severe Covid-19 conditions is 2.5 percent, and hospitalizations account for 18.6 percent of all hospitalizations.

The strategy, on the other hand, can only be realized by deferring noncritical operations and treatments, as well as by not admitting any new inpatients, and by concentrating entirely on Covid-19 therapy — which is likely to result in significant disruption to the health-care system as a result.

National university hospitals, including Seoul National University Hospital, will dedicate around 40% of all adult intensive care units (ICUs) to Covid patients, with the majority of these beds coming from internal medicine-related beds.

It has also been mandated that larger general hospitals, such as Samsung Medical Center, devote an additional one percent of their beds to the care of Covid-19 patients who are critically ill.

Except for Covid-19 patients who will be discharged or transferred to another facility, the National Medical Center, Seoul Medical Center, one veterans hospital, and one occupational accident hospital will discharge or transfer all of its patients in order to make room for extra beds.

Authorities have also stated that there are concerns concerning health care provisions that are not tied to Covid.

During a briefing on Wednesday, Son Young-rae, senior epidemiological strategist at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, stated, "We do feel a medical disruption is inevitable."

As a result, "it is inevitable that larger general hospitals will have to reduce surgeries, and outpatient treatment can be controlled," Son explained, adding, "We have adjusted only a few public hospitals to focus on treating Covid-19 in order to minimize disruptions in treatment for the most vulnerable patients."

The government's new rules restricting the length of time Covid-19 patients may be confined to intensive care units (ICUs) to a maximum of 20 days are expected to exacerbate the situation. In an effort to alleviate the bed crisis, the government informed hospitals that it would put a 20-day limit on the number of Covid-19 patients who might be admitted to an intensive care unit. Only a few exceptions apply to the need that they be transferred to another ward if necessary after the 20-day period.

Those who fail to comply with the restrictions will have their state assistance for Covid-19-related treatment costs reduced, and they may face a fine of up to 1 million won ($840) in addition to other penalties. Within two days after receiving the formal instruction, the authorities instructed that hospitals adhere to the standards in accordance with them.

Frontline doctors, on the other hand, have requested that the discharge regulation be delayed or canceled since it might compromise the safety of both Covid and non-Covid patients.

During a briefing on Wednesday, Lee Seu-ran, the director of hospital bed management at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, stated that "patients with reduced immunity or those who fall under some exceptional circumstances can stay in the Covid I.C.U.," which stands for Covid Intensive Care Unit.