Patients die waiting for treatment as Korea’s COVID-19 deaths hit record

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20201217000801

Patient dies waiting for treatment as Korea’s COVID-19 deaths hit record
By Kim Arin
Published : Dec 17, 2020 - 15:02 Updated : Dec 17, 2020 - 22:40

Public health officials said Thursday a Seoul resident in their 60s had died while waiting to be admitted to a hospital after a COVID-19 diagnosis, marking the first such case to be reported in the capital since the pandemic began.

They said the patient died at home Tuesday after having waited three days for a hospital bed since testing positive for the virus on Saturday.

“The patient did not exhibit severe symptoms initially -- just an itch in the throat -- and their condition appears to have worsened rapidly. The patient had diabetes but could self-medicate,” a Seoul official told The Korea Herald over the phone.

The patient had contracted the virus at a restaurant in Jong-no, central Seoul, the official said. Further details remained unknown as the case is still being investigated by the authorities.

Significant bed shortages are straining hospitals in Seoul, which has long been Korea’s COVID-19 epicenter, as the city counted a record number of 423 new cases on Thursday.

All of the intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients at Seoul hospitals were filled by Wednesday afternoon. None of the “semi-ICU” beds, intended to accommodate patients requiring critical care once ICUs reach full capacity, were available, either.

On the same day, Korea shattered yet another record for COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations nationwide, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention’s situation report showed.

Twenty-two people died in the 24 hours ending Wednesday midnight, the highest number of deaths from COVID-19 in a single day. The figure comes just two days after the previous record of 13 was set on Monday.

“Increasingly more cases are being confirmed after deaths. This signals high transmission in the community,” a senior offical at the KDCA said during a virtual news briefing, in response to a question about the possible cause of the rise in deaths. There is no evidence of the virus mutating into a more virulent form, he added.

By Wednesday there were 12,209 patients undergoing treatment either at hospitals or nonhospital facilities, of whom 242 are in intensive care -- the highest ever number...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20201220000152

More Koreans dying of COVID-19 without ever receiving care
Still, government won’t consider tougher social distancing restrictions
By Kim Arin
Published : Dec 20, 2020 - 15:41 Updated : Dec 20, 2020 - 18:35

As the third surge of new coronavirus infections packs hospitals, more patients around South Korea are dying without ever having access to medical care.

Another Seoul resident died waiting for hospital treatment more than a day after being confirmed to have COVID-19, marking the second such known casualty in the capital, public health officials said Sunday.

They said the man in his 60s died at his home in Guro-gu, southern Seoul, in the early hours of Sunday. He was diagnosed with the virus around noon Friday, and had since been on standby until he was found unconscious by his family.

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, a 64-year-old man in Dongdaemun-gu, eastern Seoul, was discovered dead by emergency dispatchers after his wife, who was hospitalized with COVID-19, called 119 saying he couldn’t be reached.

A Dongdaemun-gu official said the deceased patient wasn’t assigned a bed immediately as he was relatively young. Although he had high blood pressure and diabetes, his case was not classified as urgent because he was able to self-medicate.

His symptoms, which were reported to have been mild initially, appear to have worsened rapidly overnight, the district official said, quoting his wife. She said that the night before he died, he told her over the phone that he was in pain and had blood in his sputum. The doctor who examined him after death said he had died of cardiopulmonary arrest from COVID-19.

In the days that followed, two residents of a nursing home in Gyeonggi Province -- a woman in her 80s and a man in his 60s -- died before they could be transferred to a hospital. They were confirmed with the virus Dec. 11 and 14, respectively.

At the same nursing home, three patients in their 70s and 80s died Dec. 13-16 while waiting for hospital beds to open up.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s Dec. 14 situation report, which represents the latest available data, estimates that 13 patients have died at home so far. Thirty died while being transported to emergency services or immediately after arriving.

Government officials recognize only three of these patients as “having died while waiting for treatment.”

In Saturday’s news briefing, officials at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said they were debating whether these deaths should be understood as the result of care being delayed or absent.

“Patients who die at a nursing home or psychiatric ward following a COVID-19 diagnosis are not completely bereft of medical attention, for instance,” said Gwack Jin, a senior official who is in charge of patient management. But he failed to explain what kind of COVID-19 treatment the deceased nursing home residents were able to receive, or if the nursing home had the necessary equipment or staff.

Due to lack of hospital beds, at least 368 people in Seoul and nearby Incheon and Gyeonggi Province had been waiting at home for more than 24 hours after being diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Saturday.

Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo told a news briefing Sunday afternoon that the government would expand hospitals’ bed capacity in the capital area so that “patients would not have to stay unattended for more than a day.” He did not provide the specific timeline for achieving this goal.

The government over the weekend ordered 40 hospitals to close some of their non-COVID-19 beds and turn them into COVID-19 beds. Experts worry that this move could significantly hinder medical services for people with other health concerns.

“This means patients who are already hospitalized need to move elsewhere and new patients won’t have a chance to be admitted,” said lung specialist Dr. Park Sung-hoon of Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province.

Park, who is a member of the Critical Care Society of Korea, said “not a single one” of the medical society’s suggestions for improving critical care capacity has been accommodated since the pandemic began. “But hopefully more changes will come from now on,” he said.

Meanwhile, the government reiterated Sunday that it was not considering moving to the most restrictive tier of its social distancing system...