Long ER waits aggravate spread of virus in Seoul

Seoul

THE man who became South Korea's Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) patient number 14 waited two-and-a-half days in the emergency ward for a bed to open at a prestigious Seoul hospital - not an unusually long time for the city's top medical centres.

By the time the 35-year-old was suspected of being infected with Mers, nearly 900 hospital staff, visitors and patients had been through the emergency ward.