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 "It is a prison without bars ... It hurts me because she wants to
see my face even at a distance," said Jeong Yeon-seok, fighting back
tears after catching the eye of his 72-year-old mother on the sixth
floor of the Mediheal Hospital.
Thousands of Koreans have been put under quarantine, including those
inside two hospitals that are under a two-week lockdown - meaning no
one can enter or leave.
MERS has infected 162 people in South Korea, with 20 fatalities, in
its largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia. All of the infections
known to have occurred in South Korea took place in health care
facilities.
Worryingly for the likes of Jeong and his mother, most of those to
die in the outbreak have been elderly or had existing ailments.
Each day at 11 a.m and 4 p.m., Mediheal staff guarded by police
officers collect items such as instant coffee, fruit and cigarettes
left for patients by relatives or friends at a back door to the
hospital.
Jeong, 45, delivered two bags of home-made leaf-mustard kimchi,
shampoo and towels for his mother.
Mediheal was locked down by officials on June 11, after a patient
there was diagnosed with MERS. The infected patient has been moved
to another hospital, and none of those remaining at Mediheal has
tested positive for the virus.
"My son comes here every day, seeing me from outside the hospital,
and calls me several times. It is just so sad, it is making me cry,"
Hwang, who lives across the street from the Mediheal Hospital, told
Reuters by telephone.
"It is boring and baffling because we are locked up here six people
in our room, so we are killing time by talking with each other or
watching TV."
Mediheal Hospital said the precaution was necessary, and that staff
were trying as much as possible to help patients who might otherwise
have been helped family members.
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In addition to the two hospitals under lockdown, another has been
completely shut and the prestigious Samsung Medical Center in Seoul,
where the most infections have occurred, has stopped taking new
patients.
About 6,500 people are in quarantine, some in hospitals but most at
home, including an entire village of 105 people.
At Changwon SK Hospital, which was sealed-off with 54 people inside
after a MERS patient visited, officials brought in exercise bikes to
help patients stay fit and cope with boredom.
A patient, surnamed Jeong, at the hospital in the southern part of
the country, said a sense of camaraderie had built among the
patients.
"We are watching each other if anyone coughs. I heard someone at
another floor had coughs but was tested negative. But we have some
kind of unity as well and tell each other to keep clean," said the
man, who was admitted to hospital after breaking his finger.
"I want to go outside and get some fresh air."
(Editing by Tony Munroe and Jeremy Laurence)
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