What is the solution to the COVID-19 crisis?

Cheongwadae, meets with experts in the field of general medicine

It's time to change the treatment paradigm for mild and severe patients

To reduce the number of serious and death patients, the burden on medical institutions should be minimized.

 

Abandoning the idea that a hospital should see a minor patient unconditionally, and dispatching a medical team, but it is possible to efficiently manage infection by securing a management bed of a serious patient.

 

(Professor Jung-sik Eom, Gachon University Gil Medical Center) As COVID-19 reached the critical stage of crisis warning, experts from the medical field of infectious diseases met with President Moon and urged to address the shortage of quarantine items such as screening of serious and severe patients and masks.

 

On January 24, Cheongwadae said it held a top aide meeting presided over by President Moon from 2pm to 4pm.

 

There were ten members including Kyung-ran Baek, Chairman of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases , Dong-hyun Kim, Chairman of the Korean Society of Epidemiology, Tak Hur, Chairman of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine, Seong-ran Kim, Chairman of the Korean Association of Infection Control Nurses, and Committee working TF official.

 

The promotion of public hygiene regulations has led to the need for the public to cooperate with the medical staff at the forefront.

 

Another suggestion was to expand the mitigation policy by focusing on the outbreak of infections in Daegu and Gyeongbuk.

 

Kyung-ran Baek, Chairman of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases said, "We should apply mitigation policies to minimize damage to Daegu, Gyeongbuk, Busan, and Gyeongnam, and rather than washing your hands vaguely, must specify this way of publicity that you wash your hands frequently with soap, for more than 30 seconds, and cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeve when you cough or sneeze".

 

Sang-il Kim, the TF chief of the Pan-Academic COVID-19 Countermeasures Committee, said, “it is necessary to change people's awareness.

 

The people are one axis, not the target of the quarantine system.

 

It is not just hard to wash hands, but it is very necessary for the people's efforts”.

 

Dong-hyun Kim, Chairman of the Korean Society of Epidemiology, said that several stage upgrades were appropriate, but organizational changes should not occur.

 

Changes in policy and response are needed.

 

Also, he added that it is urgent to make local people dissemination behaviors, and it is important to cooperate with civil society in the mitigation policy.

 

The message that the situation can be overcome should come from many communities, organizations and groups.

 

There were also opinions on the need for prevention and treatment strategies to further shape the role of hospitals for treating mild and severe patients.

 

Hee-Jin Chung, Vice Chairman of the Korean Society for Antimicrobial Therapy, said, “We need a strategy for local governments to quickly designate the role of critically ill hospitals among patients who are diagnosed, and maintaining the existing medical system, but the gap between local governments, suggests the operation of a special advisory group at the central measures headquarters in the prime minister".

 

Professor Jung-sik Eom, Gachon University Gil Medical Center also said, "The treatment of mild patients needs special measures.

 

If a patient is self-isolated at a specific facility, such as Koreans withdrew from Wuhan, the medical staff can go to the facility and can secure the bed".

 

He said that it's a different idea to reduce infections in hospitals, If the hospital burden increases, one seriously ill person can infect the whole like Cheongdo Daenam Hospital.

 

Even medical institutions lamented that they were suffering from supply of protective equipment for infectious diseases such as masks.

 

Seong-ran Kim, Chairman of the Korean Association of Infection Control Nurses, said, “even medical institutions are hard to find protective equipment, so they use masks little by little, and please consider the way to produce and control the protective equipment at the national level to share goods".

 

Eun-hwa Choi, vice chairman of the Korean Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, said, “The spread of community infections can cause children to infect the community.

 

Although the school delayed a week, children are often cared for by older grandparents, who are susceptible to infection.

 

It is needed to introduce paid vacation for parents to care for them at home”.