Park Geun-hye in Hospital After Testing Negative for COVID

Ex-President Park Geun-hye tested negative for coronavirus on Wednesday after coming into contact with an infected correctional officer, according to the Justice Ministry.

Park is serving 20 years for corruption and abuse of office.

But she was treated for shoulder pain at Catholic University of Korea's St. Mary's Hospital in Seoul on Monday, and one of the two officers who escorted her tested positive for the virus the next day.

The other, a woman, walked arm-in-arm with Park, but the infected male officer walked a few steps behind. The woman tested negative on Wednesday. Despite testing negative, Park was sent to the hospital for isolation. Park will stay in a single room at the hospital for about two weeks.

"We're considering paying her hospital costs from government coffers because she is being isolated in an emergency, not for personal reasons," a ministry official said.

Meanwhile, Park's predecessor Lee Myung-bak, who is also serving a prison term for corruption at the Seoul Dongbu Detention Center, has been treated for high blood pressure and other chronic illness at Seoul National University Hospital since Dec. 21. He is expected to be discharged next week.

Lee will not be sent back to the jail, where hundreds of infections have occurred, but transferred to a solitary cell in another prison.