Tens of thousands of doctors will stage a full-scale strike as planned this week in protest of the government's medical workforce reform.

The Korean Medical Association(KMA) said that doctors, including interns and residents at general hospitals, and practitioners at neighborhood clinics, will begin a three-day nationwide strike starting Wednesday. 

The KMA is demanding the government withdraw its medical reform plan, including a move to increase the number of medical students and open a new public medical school. 

The walkout is the second of its kind organized by the KMA. In the previous strike on August 14, the doctors held a massive rally in Seoul, but the latest will be online without any outdoor rally in light of the spread of COVID-19. 

Thousands of trainee doctors have already been on strike since late last week.

According to the Health and Welfare Ministry, as of Tuesday, 58-point-three percent, or about six-thousand out of some ten-thousand trainee doctors went on strike.