The government will lift the “severe” health care disaster alert it issued last year following a mass walkout by trainee doctors that plunged the country’s health services into crisis. 

Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong announced the decision on Friday during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on doctors’ collective action at the government complex in Seoul.

The minister said that the alert will be lifted as of 12 a.m. on Monday because the healthcare system has been operating stably since the return of trainee doctors. 

In February of last year, following a mass resignation of trainee doctors over former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s plan to raise the medical school admissions cap, the health ministry raised the alert to its highest level and activated the emergency medical system.

Jeong apologized to patients and their families who experienced inconvenience and difficulty due to the medical conflict over the past 20 months and expressed gratitude to the workers and first responders who continued protecting lives under challenging circumstances.