Gyeonggi Province Establishes and Operates 'Gyeonggi-style Confirmed Patient Health Management System' for COVID-19 Response

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park Noh-hoon] The Gyeonggi Province COVID-19 Emergency Task Force (co-chairs Lee Hee-young and Lim Seung-gwan) announced on the 4th at 0:00 that the number of confirmed cases in Gyeonggi Province was 102 (5,328 nationwide). This represents an increase of 3 cases from the previous day. Among the confirmed cases, 9 have been discharged and 92 are currently in isolation treatment.

By city and county, confirmed cases occurred in 18 municipalities including Suwon with 18 cases, Yongin with 10 cases, and Bucheon and Icheon with 9 cases each. Upon analysis of confirmed cases, 28 were related to Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, and 26 were related to Shincheonji.

As of the 4th, Gyeonggi Province has secured 139 beds at 9 hospitals including 3 nationally designated facilities and 5 public medical institutions, as well as 1 Seongnam Medical Center, with 53 available beds currently. The number of confirmed patients from other provinces admitted within Gyeonggi is 10.
Gyeonggi Province has established a cooperation system for beds with tertiary general hospitals within the province including Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Ajou University Hospital, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Hallym Sung-Sim Hospital, and Korea University Ansan Hospital. Currently, 7 severely ill patients are receiving treatment at tertiary general hospitals.

Among these, the province decided on the 4th to transfer 25 moderate-level patients to Gyeonggi Province in response to the national response for Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.

Gyeonggi Province's measures in preparation for bed shortages have also been announced.
Given the high contagiousness of the COVID-19 virus and the occurrence of community transmission, bed shortages are anticipated. The province plans to establish and operate a 'Gyeonggi-style Confirmed Patient Health Management System.'
First, a confirmed patient health management system will be prepared. The province is preparing to establish a system that effectively classifies health management methods for confirmed cases and continuously monitors health status from pre-hospital to post-hospital stages.
As a strategy for this, the province plans to develop a severity classification platform and resource management platform and operate a reassurance call center with medical professionals stationed.
Confirmed patient health management standards (draft) will also be prepared. The plan is to establish basic clinical (severity) classification standards using values that health center staff and others can easily measure through telephone and visits, and to convert these into a database.

In addition, the province will operate a home health management service. For confirmed cases that are healthy and have mild symptoms, the province will have patients self-isolate at home at pre-hospital or post-hospital stages, providing services including material support through relevant health centers, manual education, and patient condition checks through the reassurance call center.

Co-chair Lim Seung-gwan stated, "The current progress of COVID-19 is at an intermediate stage of spreading from small to large scale, and this is a time when outbreak minimization and mitigation strategies are needed to respond to community transmission." He added, "We will do our best in responding to COVID-19 by managing confirmed cases based on databases and establishing a medical institution network based on cooperation and trust."

Meanwhile, since the 3rd, Gyeonggi Province has composed and operated the 'Gyeonggi Province COVID-19 Emergency Task Force' with Lee Hee-young, director of Gyeonggi Province Infectious Disease Management Support Division, and Lim Seung-gwan, director of Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Anseong Hospital, as co-chairs.
The emergency task force was reorganized from the existing Gyeonggi Province COVID-19 Crisis Response Center in response to the large possibility of a pandemic of COVID-19 for rapid and accurate infectious disease response.
The task force checks daily occurrence status of COVID-19 and discusses response directions. The province plans to provide detailed explanations of implementation status to residents through regular briefings held three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Additionally, the task force is composing and operating an 'Expert Advisory Committee' for private-public cooperation. The committee is composed of 21 experts and plans to provide advisory roles such as patient classification and adjustment of isolation bed allocation.