Samsung vice-chairman offers head-bow apology over spread of virus

onnaedo

June 23, 2015 3:09 PM

Lee further promised to thoroughly overhaul the medical centre, which, prior to the outbreak, was regarded as one of the country’s most prestigious hospitals.

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Following the wide spread of the MERS virus in South Korea, whose spread origin has been traced to the Samsung Medical Centre in capital Seoul, the vice chairman and heir of Samsung Electronics, Jay Y. Lee has apologised for the manner in which the hospital handled the disease outbreak.

Speaking during a televised public apology, Lee said:

“Samsung Medical Centre has failed to control the infection and spread of the virus, causing great pain and concern to the people, I apologise, with my head bowed”

He further said "the hospital will take full responsibility for the treatment of the patients and we will make best efforts to prevent any recurrence”

The head of Samsung Medical Center, Song Jae-Hoon also admitted the hospital had failed to tackle the disease at the early stages of its transmission.

Lee heads the Samsung foundation that operates Samsung Medical Centre, and he pledged to actively support the development of a vaccine against the MERS virus.

His father and the chairman of Samsung Electronics, Lee Kun-Hee, has been bedridden in the hospital for more than a year since suffering a heart attack.

Samsung Medical Centre has accounted for about half of all 175 confirmed cases of MERS in South Korea, the largest outbreak of the disease outside Saudi Arabia.

onnaedo