South Korea reports record coronavirus cases as Seoul runs out of critical care beds

The daily tally topped 1,000 for the first time since South Korea confirmed its first coronavirus infection in January. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea reported a record daily rise in novel coronavirus cases on Wednesday (Dec 16) and the Prime Minister issued an urgent call for more hospital beds to cope with the country's worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic.

Hospitals were at breaking point with only three critical care beds available in greater Seoul, an area with a population of almost 26 million people, officials said.

"The top priority is securing more hospital beds," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting, according to a transcript.

"Full administrative power should be mobilised so that no patient would wait for more than a day before being assigned to her bed."

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 1,078 new coronavirus cases, the highest since the start of the pandemic.

The number of severe cases also hit a record of 226 and has more than doubled over the past two weeks, officials said.

The KDCA reported 12 more deaths, the second day of double-digit fatalities after a record 13 the day before.

South Korea had managed to keep cases relatively low during the previous two waves of infection, but the third wave has proven far more challenging for contact tracers to contain due to its emergence in the densely populated capital region.

The government said it was working to secure several hundred critical care beds, and thousands more for patients who were less ill.

Most of the new beds came from public hospitals and authorities were considering expanding incentives to boost cooperation from private institutions, senior health ministry official Yoon Tae-ho said.

Much of the surge in deaths and serious infections originated in outbreaks at medical facilities and nursing homes that housed elderly people or patients with underlying conditions, Yoon said.

The government this week instructed all schools in the Seoul area to close for a month but has stopped short of ordering a full lockdown due to the damage it would do to Asia's fourth-largest economy.

South Korea has now reported a total of 45,442 cases of the novel coronavirus, with 612 deaths.

Meanwhile, South Korean pharmaceutical maker Celltrion Inc's candidate Covid-19 antibody treatment has been approved to be used on patients with life-threatening conditions, health authorities said on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved CT-P59 under its patient treatment scheme on Friday, its website showed.

Under the scheme, patients with life-threatening conditions and with no other means of treatment can receive drugs still undergoing clinical trials, the ministry said.

Celltrion is conducting second- and third-phase clinical trials for CT-P59, and plans to seek emergency-use approval for the treatment before year-end, a company spokesman said.

The treatment is expected to be administered to the first patients "soon", Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency official Kwon Jun-wook said in a briefing on Tuesday.

LISTEN TO THE BIG STORY PODCAST

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.