※ 'Corona Behind' is a report by Park Soo-jin, a reporter from the Life and Culture Department of SBS Press Headquarters, who is running at the forefront of the Corona 19 coverage.

Once a week, reporters Park's articles and thoughts that were not included in the article are released to readers.

[Editor's Note]



I took the address of the hospital where the funeral home was located in the navigation.

It was a hospital in the metropolitan area, but it was far from the city center.

While moving, I thought, 'If there is a hospital in a place like this, how can people find it?'



Arrived at the hospital.

To the left was a paddy field, and to the right was a blind field with weeds and trees growing chaotically.

There were sparse houses and schools around, but it was not easy to move because it was an unpaved road.



The person I decided to meet at the hospital was Mr. Kim, the son who lost his mother to Corona two days ago.

It was the first day of the funeral.



This hospital is said to be a place for receiving funerals for those who have died from Corona.

The story of his son Kim is that "there are very few hospitals where the corona dead can go to a funeral."


"I'm sorry, can I go outside? I'm noticing."


No. 3 funeral hall in the basement.

It was daytime on the first day of the funeral, but there were few people and the air was gloomy.

Kim and his brother-in-law, two people, were guarding the mortuary.

A chrysanthemum flower was placed in front of the picture of the dead and offered condolences.

The chrysanthemum I planted was the first chrysanthemum.



“If you had called, I would have left, but let’s go outside first.”

(Mr. Kim)



"There aren't many people yet, wouldn't it be okay to interview inside this restaurant?"

(Reporter)



"No. Get out of here."

(Mr. Kim)


Kim was surprised to see the reporters van parked in the parking lot outside the funeral home.

"Ahh. There's a broadcasting company logo on it."

Kim looked around Yeonsin.

It was a look of nervousness that someone might see.



"Reporter, I'm sorry, but you're going out altogether. You're noticing. I don't want the hospital to let the outside world know that the corona dead are here."


It is a fact that I learned later through additional coverage, but this hospital had a relationship with a nearby corona-based hospital, and it was a place that received word of mouth funerals for corona patients who died there.

Recently, it is said that there are corona survivors who come to the funeral from Gyeongsang-do or Jeolla-do.

This is because, as Kim said, many hospitals are reluctant to burial the corona dead.



It is a precious hospital for the bereaved family, but even this hospital seems to want the funeral to be held quietly so that the outside is not visible.

Corona survivors are victims of the loss of their family due to an infectious disease, but even at the moment of the funeral, they had to pay attention to others.



"I really don't know why I have to keep an eye on it, but everyone thinks that it's bad when it's rumored to be that way. Because perceptions are like that, I start to notice it too. It seems that people around me start to notice too."

mother was not a patient


I got in the car and drove to a nearby school away from the hospital.

There were several benches, and it was only when we got there that we could hear Mr. Kim's story.



Kim said her mother's death was "depressing."

My mother, who was 69 years old, died on December 21, and until two weeks ago, she had not been infected with Corona.

Due to symptoms of dementia and diabetes, my mother had been in a nursing home for 6 years.

Kim's story is that although he was a reclined patient with limited mobility, his cognition was clear.



The tragedy began on November 25th.

A caregiver at a nursing home where her mother was hospitalized was confirmed with Corona.

As the infection spread and the number of confirmed cases increased one by one, the entire floor of the nursing home where my mother was staying was placed under cohort isolation.

In principle, high-risk confirmed patients should be transferred to a hospital dedicated to infectious diseases as soon as possible, but this was not possible.

Because there were not enough beds.




The story of the nursing home is that the insufficient beds were allocated first to those who became seriously ill during home treatment, and nursing hospitals and nursing facilities were pushed back from the priority of bed allocation because they were 'places where medical care is available'.

In the process, a confirmed patient with symptoms stayed in the same space in the nursing home with a sheet of plastic in between.

Kim's mother had to stay in a nursing facility for nearly two weeks without being properly separated from the confirmed patient.


"It is said that the nursing home separated the wards on both sides to manage confirmed and non-confirmed patients. I visited once in the middle. But it was too lax to call it a cohort measure. When the elevator door opens, it is just a screen to the left. is divided into confirmed patients and non-confirmed ones on the right. There was a large space in the middle, but it was all connected. Nurses at the nursing home take care of the confirmed person and then come out to take care of the non-confirmed person again. It was a situation where it was impossible not to spread."


Unlike nursing homes, nursing homes are difficult to manage.

However, as the confirmed patients could not be transferred to a higher-level hospital, the nursing home officials had to take care of the patients as they became confirmed.

It was difficult to avoid the spread of infection.




Kim's mother was confirmed late on December 9, two weeks after the first confirmed case.

A few days before he was confirmed, his condition worsened, and after being confirmed, his oxygen saturation fell below 80%, and he deteriorated to a state where he could not even open his mouth.



He was transferred to the intensive care unit at a nearby university hospital, but within ten days he was transferred to a nursing hospital dedicated to infectious diseases.

According to the nursing hospital, Kim's mother had symptoms of fever and shortness of breath even when she was transferred.

An official from the nursing hospital said, "I am an elderly person with an underlying disease, so even if I used lekkorina (injection-type treatment), there was no improvement. In the end, he died in two days."


It was a preventable death.


'The direct cause is COVID-19'.

The cause of death left on the mother's death certificate was very clear, but his son Kim said he was confused.


“Even if we had properly separated the confirmed and non-confirmed people in the first place, the infection could not occur. When we tried to bring our mother out without separation, the public health center said no. It was a death that could have been prevented. It could have been prevented enough…”



My son, Kim, got married last year.

Children were also born.

But the mother never attended the wedding, nor did she hold her grandchildren.

because of corona.



"What should I say if this is not a modern version of Goryeojang. I believe that my mother's death was 100% her talent. I really hope the government will reflect on it a lot."


Even in the middle of the day, the temperature was freezing. After sitting on the bench and talking for a while, my hands and feet felt frozen. After the interview and filming, I offered to 'take you by car', but Kim refused. With the padded zipper up to the end of his neck, he walked towards the hospital. Looking at Mr. Kim's back, I regretted saying, 'I'll come in a car that doesn't have a broadcasting company logo'.


Kim's mother's story was reported on SBS 8 News on December 23rd. (▶Related article: A space with a confirmed person over a plastic sheet…"Death that could have been prevented") The





Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced on the 28th that it would strengthen the management of nursing facilities that were quarantined in a cohort.



In principle, when a confirmed person occurs, they are transferred to a nursing hospital dedicated to infectious diseases.



It also said that it would subsidize the cost of medical examinations for isolated non-confirmed patients if a contracted doctor conducts remote examination.



Regarding the point that the infection spreads because the confirmed and non-confirmed people are not properly separated, he said that he would actively proceed with all the confirmed cases, but take separate and quarantine measures within the facility as much as possible. Park Hyang, head of the quarantine division at the Central Accident Response Headquarters, said, "In the case of people who are not infected, we will precisely reinforce the quarantine systems that separate places and separate movement lines."



( Reporting: Park Soo-jin, PD: Kim Do-kyun, Illustration: Ok Ji-soo, Producer: D Content Planning Department)