Out of the 1,118 sickbeds for the Covid-19 patients in the Seoul metro region, 857, or 76.7 percent, are being occupied, municipal officials said.

Medical institutions in the greater Seoul area are now operating 650 negative pressure rooms and 468 beds at community treatment centers.

Out of the 1,118 sickbeds in the greater Seoul area, 857, or 76.7 percent, are occupied as of midnight Thursday.

Starting Friday, the health authorities plan to reclassify the Covid-19 patients by severity and allocate sickbeds accordingly through decisions made by the on-site response team based at the National Medical Center, the City Hall said.

The decision comes as the number of infected patients in the capital and its vicinity has recently surged, causing concerns about the shortage of sick beds. It is aimed to prevent the overuse of sickbeds by strengthening the criteria.

For example, patients with moderate-degree symptoms using isolated sickbeds for severe patients will be relocated to ordinary sickbeds.

Besides, the government plans to revise standards for using intensive care units in the case of recovering patients who do not need ventilators and propose them to different facilities.

“We decided to secure 50 more sickbeds for severe patients and 260 extra beds at infectious disease hospitals,” Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Kim Gang-lip said. “We opened the National Training Center in Taeneung, Seoul, as a community treatment center Thursday, and are looking for additional facilities, including the Training Institute of Education in Gyeonggi Province.”

The coronavirus-related sickbed-occupancy rate in Seoul shot to 80.8 percent on Wednesday and fell to 65.8 percent on Thursday, but rebounded to 76.7 percent on Friday, the municipal officials said.

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