South Korea has reported a record number of Covid-19 patients in critical condition and Covid-19 related deaths from Monday, putting more pressure on the capacity of the country’s medical system.
The number of critically ill Covid-19 patients now stands at 906 as 30 more patients were added from the previous day, and 94 additional Covid-19 deaths have been reported, raising the total number of the country’s deaths to 4,387, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on Tuesday.
On Friday, Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said ICU bed capacity was reaching its limit in the Greater Seoul area as patients in critical conditions and deaths were rising due to the virus spreading among the elderly people.
The country has reported 5,567 daily new cases of coronavirus from Monday, according to the data by the KDCA.
As of 12 am Tuesday, 83.8% of the population received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, 81.3% of the population received a second dose of vaccine, and 13.9% received a booster shot, according to the KDCA.
At least, 17 Covid-19 patients died in South Korea last week (December 5 to December 11) before being admitted to a hospital bed, according to the KDCA’s data.
Among those, one person was diagnosed with Covid-19 in a postmortem, while the other 16 had tested positive for coronavirus and were waiting to be assigned beds, the KDCA added.