This report describes Korea’s experience with specialized community treatment centers for COVID, which may be a very cost-effective and resource-saving strategy in managing massive cases of COVID-19.

In less than 6 weeks Korea went from one confirmed patient to more than 5000, which overcrowded their hospital resources and forced confirmed patients to remain at home. Korea therefore created a novel institution to treat patients with cohort isolation outside of the hospital. This report details the initial management of patients at one of the largest of these facilities. More than 300 patients were admitted to this one center.

In the first two weeks, seven patients were transferred to the hospital and 107 patients were discharged without any complication. Although it is a novel concept and may have some limitations, CTC may be a very cost-effective and resource-saving strategy in managing massive cases of COVID-19 or other emerging infectious diseases.