Doctors recommend authorities to release virus patients earlier
Bang Ji-hwan, right, head of the National Medical Center, speaks during a press briefing at the medical center building in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap
Gov't to restrict visas, flights from Pakistan, Bangladesh
By Bahk Eun-ji
Medical experts recommended on Sunday that health authorities consider reducing the isolation period for COVID-19 patients because the virus is found to be highly contagious only in the early stages.
“The risk of transmission of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was greatest usually during the second week of illness. However, transmission of COVID-19 is greatly reduced after a few days of the onset. It means COVID-19 patients do not have to be isolated for a long period like MERS patients,” said Bang Ji-hwan, head of the National Medical Center's central clinical committee which is composed of medical attendants who have been treating COVID-19 patients.
The committee also announced revised health guidelines for COVID-19, and said the authorities could save hospital beds and other resources by doing so.
For a virus patient to be released, they currently should test negative for the virus twice in a row after symptoms stop.
The committee said the World Health Organization (WHO) is also allowing patients to be released from hospital if they do not show symptoms for more than three days after being treated for more than 10 days after the onset.
Considering that domestic patients have been quarantined for nearly four weeks on average, the length of hospitalization can be reduced by one-third just by easing the criteria for disconnection, Bang recommended.
Health authorities said the upward trend in the number of patients in Seoul since early May has raised concerns that the number of hospital beds for seriously ill patients may fall short. In Seoul, 480 coronavirus patients remained hospitalized as of Sunday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
Health authorities said they are continuing to struggle to contain a resurgence of the coronavirus amid an upward trend in new local infections especially in the Seoul metropolitan area and the interior city of Daejeon. The Seoul metropolitan area accounted for most of the newly added virus cases this month.
According to the KCDC, 48 new infections ― 40 local and eight imported ― were detected Saturday, raising the nation's total to 12,421. The death toll remained unchanged at 280.
Among the 40 local cases, 16 were from Seoul, while eight were detected in Gyeonggi Province around Seoul, and 10 were from Daejeon, one of the nation's seven largest cities a two-hour drive from Seoul. Daegu, Gwangju, Sejong and South Chungcheong Province reported one new case respectively and two were residents in Gangwon Province.
Eight additional cases at customs raised the total number of imported cases to 1,435.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo expressed worries about a recent increase in imported cases, saying the government should consider temporarily strengthening visa and other entry restrictions for citizens from countries that carry a higher risk of infection than other nations.
“Starting from Tuesday, the government plans to immediately implement strengthened quarantine measures for Pakistan and Bangladesh, where a number of confirmed cases have been found recently,” Park said during a regular meeting at the government complex in Seoul.
Under the measures, the authorities will restrict issuing visas to people from Pakistan and Bangladesh, except for diplomatic and urgent business purposes. Unscheduled flights between Korea and those two countries will be temporarily suspended.
Foreign workers with the non-professional employment E-9 visa from the two countries will be thoroughly checked for places where they can self-quarantine before entry, and if there is no such place, entry will not be permitted.
Due to a fresh rise in daily new cases in the Seoul metropolitan area, the country had imposed two weeks of tougher infection preventive measures in late May until June 14.