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Medical workers at a hospital for COVID-19 patients in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, tend to patients on Friday amid the continued spread of the virus. (Yonhap News)

The number of people in South Korea hospitalized with severe or critical COVID-19 symptoms rose by 35 to reach a historic high of 460 on Tuesday.

The number is just below the threshold of 500–600 patients that the South Korean government has said it would be able to cope with. The government is also proceeding with steps to purchase ECMO machines and ventilators to treat severe and critical patients.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced on Wednesday that the number of severe and critical COVID-19 patients nationwide stood at 460 as of the end of the day Tuesday, an increase of 35 from the 425 recorded the day before.

The current number is higher than the peaks of 411 recorded during the third COVID-19 wave on Jan. 6 and 427 counted during the fourth wave on Aug. 27.

The number of new daily confirmed cases was tallied at 2,425 on Wednesday, up by 710 from the day before to push the new daily caseload above 2,000 for the first time in the three days since Sunday, when the total was 2,224.

The government explained that the level is within the range to allow for a stable response, noting that while the intensive care bed occupancy rate was 70% for the greater Seoul region, it stood at 57% nationally.

But it also predicted the possibility of a shortage of beds arising if the rate of increase remains high.

“This is a worrying situation where disease control indicators are worsening faster than expected, including the numbers of severe patients and deaths and the basic reproduction number,” explained Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum at a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting.

“While we still have some margin for our healthcare response, we cannot rule out the possibility of a crisis similar to that of late last year emerging as gatherings increase toward the end of the year and seasonal factors also contribute,” he added.

The Ministry of Education recently decided to review plans for encouraging vaccination among students, noting that vaccine reservation rates for young children and teenagers remain stagnant despite a clear trend of increase in confirmed cases in the 10–19 age group.

Speaking at a disease control countermeasure meeting focused in part on safely holding the College Scholastic Ability Test scheduled for next week, Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hae noted, “The effects of vaccines have already been objectively demonstrated by the sharp decrease in the rate of confirmed cases among third-year high school students who have been fully vaccinated.”

“We will proactively examine measures to encourage vaccination among students,” she added.

The ministry’s discussion of measures to encourage vaccination — after its previous emphasis on individual choice — was prompted by the fact that confirmed cases among the school-age population segment are clustered predominantly in the 13–17 age group, which is currently eligible for vaccination.

The vaccine reservation rate among South Koreans aged 12 to 15 stood at just 30.7% as of Tuesday. Among those aged 16 and 17, the rate was just 65.4% when reservations closed on Oct. 29.

According to Korea’s disease control authority, the number of confirmed cases in the school-age demographic rose from 1,996 during the third week of October (Oct. 17–23) to 3,376 during the first week of November (Oct. 31–Nov. 6). Patients between the ages of 13 and 17 accounted for 1,392, or 41.2%, of those cases.

By Kim Ji-hoon, staff reporter

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