The increase in the number of COVID-19 cases… field chaos
Anxiety about neglect due to delay in contact with public health center
I can’t get a prescription even if I’m connected to a dedicated hospital
Skip to contact release after leaving the treatment center
“Confirmed patients should also be shifted to high-risk groups”
As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 30,000 for the second day, chaos continues at front-line sites such as public health centers and dedicated hospitals in charge of movement and treatment of confirmed patients.
As of 00:00 on the 6th, the daily number of new confirmed cases was 38,691, which more than doubled in a week. As of 00:00 on the 6th, the number of home-treated patients also increased, reaching 128,176. After a rapid increase in infections in a short period of time due to the Omicron mutation, the confirmed cases were concerned that they might be neglected by the medical authorities, and some of the concerns turned out to be real.
Kang Mo (25), who lives in Nowon-gu, Seoul, has not received any contact for 8 hours after being diagnosed with COVID-19 around 8:30 am on the 27th of last month. Kang, who was waiting for a call from the public health center without receiving any information about medicine or self-quarantine app, received only one contact on the day of the diagnosis, asking about the route at 4 pm. In the meantime, Kang survived a full day without medicines such as antipyretics.
It wasn’t until 9 a.m. the next day that I had an opportunity to tell the hospital dedicated to home treatment, ‘I have a fever and a sore throat, so please prescribe me a cold medicine’, but the medicine did not come even in the afternoon. When I inquired again, what came back was the response of the hospital, saying, “I knew I would call back if I was sick, and I haven’t prescribed the drug yet.”
Afterwards, Kang entered and discharged from the living treatment center, but four days after his discharge, a skit occurred when he was suddenly contacted to ‘remove the quarantine’. “If I had known that home therapists were being managed at this level of neglect, it would have been better for me to buy medicine alone,” said Kang.
Public health centers in the metropolitan area are suffering from overload. This has led to a bottleneck in the timely delivery of basic kits and treatments such as oxygen saturation meters to home-treated patients. There are also complaints that it takes several days to connect to a home treatment medical institution.
“Each public health center conducts basic epidemiological investigations and family quarantine investigations, but this stage is being delayed,” said Lee Ki-il, the first supervisor of the Central Disaster and Safety Headquarters. “The government is preparing a supplementary measure,” he said.
Experts pointed out that after the spread of Omicron mutation, the management system itself needs to be changed. Kim Yoon, a professor of medical management at Seoul National University, said, “The government is trying to manage 30,000 people with the manpower at the time when 3,000 people were confirmed. Like the flu, it should be changed to self-monitoring and visiting a hospital only when symptoms appear.”
Reporter Kwak So-young
