Trainee doctors across all levels have begun an indefinite strike amid the COVID-19 pandemic, protesting the government's medical workforce reform plan, while their interest group proposed a meeting with political leaders.

The Korean Intern and Resident Association said Sunday that the first- and second-year residents became the last group of trainee doctors to join the protest earlier in the day. Since Friday, interns and third- and fourth-year residents walked out of hospitals.

They are opposed to the government's plan to increase admission quotas at medical schools.

As part of the country's medical workforce reform plan, the health ministry is planning to expand admission quotas at medical schools by 4,000 over the next 10 years, starting in 2022, and to open a new public medical school as it seeks to broaden the reach of health care services.

This will increase the number of students admitted annually to medical schools to 3,458 in the 2022-2031 period from the current 3,058, according to the plan.

Doctors have opposed what they called the government's "hasty and unilateral" decision.

The government has pleaded with the young doctors to return to work, out of concerns that their collective actions could compromise the health care system amid a spike in coronavirus cases nationwide.

Later Sunday, though, the Korean Medical Association (KMA), which represents 130,000 doctors, said it reached out to the Prime Minister's Office, the ruling Democratic Party and the main opposition United Future Party with a proposal for emergency talks.

The KMA said, with the virus wreaking havoc throughout the country, it is imperative for doctors and the political community to cooperate with one another.

"In light of a grave situation with COVID-19 spreading nationwide, we've proposed a meeting while leaving all possibilities open," KMA spokesman Kim Dae-ha said. "We hope we can come to a resolution through dialogue."

With trainee doctors staging a walkout, Severance Hospital, a major general hospital in central Seoul, has told its remaining doctors that its emergency room will not be able to handle critical patients for the time being.

An official with Severance said its trainee doctors in the internal medicine department have all gone on strike, including those who would normally be on duty in the emergency room and intensive care unit.

Other general hospitals have also scaled back their outpatient services and adjusted operation schedules in response to their workforce crunch.

On Sunday, South Korea reported 397 cases, the highest total in more than five months. Over the past 10 days, 2,269 cases have been identified.

The health ministry has offered to shelve the reform plan until the COVID-19 situation stabilizes. But the trainee doctors' association earlier shot back that the ministry couldn't be trusted, accusing it of a history of deception and about-faces. (Yonhap)