Daily Times

On the fourth floor of the Incheon city hall, South Korean epidemiological investigator Jang Hanaram’s office is stuffed with six desks, two folding cots, and a table strewn with instant noodles, energy drinks and digestive aids. Jang is one of six staffers who work 24-hour shifts in the cramped space, frantically tracing and contacting potential coronavirus cases in South Korea’s third largest city as the country battles its largest wave of infections yet. Jang said he knew this wave was different in early December when the bright red messages that report confirmed cases began to multiply in the chatroom on his computer screen. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is really getting out of control,'” he told Reuters.