Hospitals in the capital region are running out of intensive care unit beds amid record high severe COVID-19 patients.

The Central Disaster Management Headquarters said 84 percent of ICU beds in Seoul, Incheon and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province were filled as Tuesday, leaving just 132 beds open.

The government had said earlier that patients in the region with COVID-19 in need of critical care could be transferred to ICUs in non-capital areas.

But most other metropolitan areas are also seeing their hospitals fill up with patients.

In an effort to avert a total shortage, authorities have designated two more hospitals, one in Seoul's Gwangjin District and the other in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, as coronavirus-only facilities.