The cut-price cardboard hospital bed that can be turned into a coffin

A Colombian company has developed the design for poor families unable to afford caskets for loved ones who have died from Covid-19

A Colombian advertising company is pitching a novel if morbid solution to shortages of hospital beds and coffins during the coronavirus pandemic: combine them.

ABC Displays has created a cardboard bed with metal railings its designers say can double as a casket if a patient dies.

Company manager Rodolfo Gomez said he was inspired to find a way to help after watching the pandemic hit neighbouring Ecuador.

Families in the coastal city of Guayaquil waited with dead loved ones in their homes for days last month as Covid-19 cases surged. Many could not find or afford a wood coffin, using donated cardboard ones instead.

“Poor families don’t have a way of paying for a coffin,” Gomez said.

Gomez said he plans to donate 10 of his new beds to Colombia’s Amazonas department, where resources are in short supply. So far there is no indication of whether the beds will be put to use and no orders have been placed.

The Bogota company is usually focused on advertisements but has been mostly paralysed over the past month as Colombia remains on lockdown. The South American nation has reported more than 15,500 confirmed cases of the virus including 574 deaths.

The beds can hold a weight of 150 kilograms and will cost about $85 (Dh312) each, Gomez said. He said he worked with a private clinic on the design, which he hopes will be put to use in emergency clinics that might become short on beds.

At least one doctor was sceptical of how sturdy a cardboard bed might be. He also said corpses should first be placed in a sealed bag before being put in a cardboard coffin to avoid potentially spreading the disease.