The government has decided to fully allow telemedicine services from Friday amid a trainee doctors’ walkout to protest the government's plan to increase the number of medical students.

Second vice health minister Park Min-soo said on Friday that the government will fully allow the use of telemedicine services until the interns and residents end their collective action.

According to the health ministry, nearly nine-thousand trainee doctors have reportedly submitted their resignations in protest of the government’s plan to increase the medical school admissions quota.  

The ministry said eight-thousand-897 or 78-point-five percent of trainee doctors at 94 hospitals had submitted their resignations as of 10 p.m. Thursday. 

Of the eight-thousand-897 trainee doctors who submitted resignations, seven-thousand-863 or 69-point-four percent have left their jobs. 

The ministry has released this data on 100 major teaching hospitals, but the latest numbers excluded figures from six hospitals which have submitted incomplete information. 

Accordingly, the numbers of trainee doctors who submitted resignations and walked off jobs decreased from those reported Thursday. 

The government received 40 new reports of damages caused by the collective action, mostly postponements of surgical procedures and doctor’s appointments, with the cumulative total reaching 189.