Coronavirus: South Korea uses shipping containers for hospital beds amid resurgence

With the number of cases rising to 700 from just 100 in a month, two public hospitals in the capital have been forced to build makeshift treatment facilities

Health minister warns that country is in ‘critical situation’ and that the coronavirus ‘has been spreading widely in cold weather’

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Workers put in place a temporary hospital ward made of shipping containers outside the Seoul Medical Centre on Thursday. Photo: AP

Published: 6:44pm, 10 Dec 2020Updated: 7:19pm, 10 Dec 2020

Shipping containers are being transformed into temporary hospital beds as South Korean medical facilities hit capacity amid what health officials have dubbed the “most difficult challenge” the country has yet faced in its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Infections in South Korea, which for months had been praised for containing the virus through an aggressive regime of testing, tracing and distancing, have surged to almost 700 from just 100 within the past month.

The sudden resurgence of the virus, centred on Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi Province, has sparked fears of a shortage of hospital beds, prompting officials to build makeshift treatment facilities in 150 shipping containers that have been hauled onto the grounds of two public hospitals in the capital.

“As confirmed cases have been growing fast in numbers, we’re in a critical situation where medical facilities are reaching their capacity,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said at a meeting of health officials. “The virus has taken root deeply in our normal daily lives and it has been spreading widely in the cold weather, infecting active young people who show few symptoms.”

Daily cases in the Seoul metropolitan area had been breaking records daily, with 3,000 new cases recorded over the past week, Park said. Wearing masks and distancing were “the best vaccines” to fight the “invisible” virus until vaccinations are able to be carried out early next year, he said.

White-painted shipping containers, complete with doors and windows, were seen being lowered on the grounds of the Seoul Medical Centre. Park Yoo-mi, a senior Seoul City government official, said these would be used to accommodate patients with milder Covid-19 cases.

The country reported 682 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, raising the total to 40,098, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Eight more people died from the illness, bringing total deaths to 564.