Myongji Hospital held a ceremony on Tuesday to disband its COVID-19 emergency response situation room, which spearheaded the hospital's innovative response strategy to the pandemic for 1,204 days.

Following the World Health Organization's declaration of an end to the global health emergency of Covid-19 last Friday, Myongji Hospital Chairman Lee Wang-jun held an urgent strategy meeting on Monday. During the meeting, he disbanded the hospital's Covid-19 emergency response situation room and announced a rapid transition to a post-Covid-19 care system

The hospital's Covid-19 situation room was established on January 21, 2020, the day after the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Korea. It was the first hospital in Korea to do so.

According to the hospital, the situation room played a pivotal role in organizing and implementing an organic and rapid treatment policy for the first locally-transmitted Covid-19 patient, which occurred on January 26, 2020, five days after its establishment.

The situation room also played a major role in sharing information with the government, the medical community, and the public based on its experience in managing and treating Covid-19 patients amid unclear guidelines around the world.

As the pandemic continued to spread, the hospital decided to utilize an entire hospital wing for Covid-19 treatment.

The building was equipped with a screening center, an emergency negative pressure isolation room, dedicated treatment beds for severe Covid-19 patients, and an Admission Screening Unit (ASU).

To ensure the effective operation of the ward, the hospital also introduced the Dual Track Healthcare System (DTHS), which separates the treatment space for Covid-19 patients from that for general patients.

Myongji said that such an innovative system was recognized by the International Hospital Federation (IHF) as a best practice in Covid-19 response and was awarded the "Best Hospital for Covid-19 Response" certification.

The hospital has also been leading the response to infectious diseases with innovative and comprehensive treatment systems such as the MJ Virtual Care Center, which provides non-face-to-face treatment for Covid-19 home treatment patients in quarantine, respiratory fever clinics, screening centers, living treatment centers, home treatment support centers, Incheon Airport COVID-19 testing centers, and rapid PCR testing centers.

In March last year, when the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Korea exceeded 7 million due to the Omicron variant, the hospital opened Korea's first "Long Covid-19 Clinic," where 14 departments, including respiratory medicine, neurology, and family medicine, treated patients suffering from after-effects.

"When the pandemic first broke out, I never imagined that it would be so global and last for so long," said Professor Choi Kang-won of the Department of Infectious Diseases, who has been at the forefront of Myungji Hospital's Covid-19 response.

Choi expressed his gratitude to the hospital's medical staff and employees for their dedication to the Covid-19 situation room and their efforts.

Chairman Lee also said, "Through various infectious diseases such as pandemic flu and MERS, we were able to come up with agile and innovative strategies for the Covid-19 emergency response situation room."

Through the situation room, the hospital has held 203 meetings, and the hospital will move forward as a leading hospital in the post-Covid-19 era based on its accumulated experience, Lee added.