After the government put on hold measures to “live with Covid” amid rising Covid-19 cases, presidential candidates criticized the government for hastily attempting to return to normalcy without proper preparations.

One candidate demanded expanding public healthcare services, and another, revising the quarantine system to an evidence-based one.

On Monday, presidential candidate Sim Sang-jung from the center-left Justice Party urged the government to secure more state-backed healthcare services, saying it was impossible to rely on “K-quarantine” that forces citizens to sacrifice.

“The suspension of returning to normal life is not a result of an unexpected outbreak of the Omicron variant but a foretold failure of the K-quarantine, which has relied only on the sacrifice of citizens,” Sim said. “The government had said it could handle as many as 10,000 cases per day, but the nation’s health system has almost paralyzed by about 5,000 daily cases.”

She called on the government to add sickbeds in state-run hospitals and secure more nurses.

One nurse is taking care of about 25 patients in Korea, and neither nurses nor patients can withstand this situation.

“I hope the government can mobilize all available emergency measures and quickly establish mid-to-long-term measures to expand public hospitals and hire more nurses.”

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People’s Party, said on his social media site that the self-proclaimed K-quarantine revealed the government’s poor crisis management ability.

“The government must have predicted a viral spread when it decided to ease social distancing amid a continued outbreak of new Covid-19 variants,” Ahn said. “But the government’s response is not only complacent but at a dangerous level that threatens the lives of the people.”

He said that the Moon Jae-in administration and Cheong Wa Dae should reflect on their quarantine measures and release a plan B.

“If the plan B is not ready, the government should set the criteria for daily recovery measures step by step and notify in advance if the viral spread exceeds those criteria,” he added.

Yoon Seok-youl, a leading contender from the opposition People Power Party, said on his social media on Wednesday that Covid-19 patients were forced to be treated at home because of the shortage of treatment facilities.

“Critically ill patients are dying in ambulances and at home while waiting to be admitted to a hospital,” Yoon said. “The government would want to deny it, but the situation where patients cannot receive proper treatment signals that the healthcare system nearly collapsed.”

He pointed out that the government did not listen to the medical community's advice when dealing with Covid-19.

Critics have repeatedly said the government implemented Covid-19 measures without proper statistics, correct standards, or plans, but Yoon said the government did not try to change at all.

“The government shifted the policy to ‘live with Covid-19’ without preparations and ignored the medical community’s advice that it should draw up plans to prevent the viral spread and secure beds for critical cases,” he said.

Yoon also said quarantine measures should be based on epidemiology, medicine, and statistics.

If there are no other obvious causes for side effects of Covid-19 vaccines and aftereffects of Covid-19, the government should compensate for vaccines’ side effects and Covid-19 treatment costs, he said.

“If the government said the public should trust the government and follow its lead, the government should take responsibility for it, too.”