COVID-19: Over 3,000 Church Members Quarantined In South Korea

Over three thousands of members of a Protestant church in South Korea has been asked to quarantine during the weekend after multiple cases of the pandemic was recorded in the capital city, Seoul.

Naija News understands that the decision came after the discovery of virus clusters linked to religious groups in the country.

It was reported that the South Korean authorities had accused the group’s firebrand conservative leader who was also confirmed positive with the novel virus of obstruction. Over the weekend, the country’s authority banned all religious gathering in the capital and neighbouring provinces, warned citizens to henceforth shun social gatherings.

South Korea has for a while now adopted a “trace, test and treat” approach to battle the spread of the dread disease, Naija News understands. However, the country is now in fear as it is now experiencing a major second wave of the pandemic.

The country on Monday reported 197 new infections, adding its total to 15,515, its fourth consecutive day of triple-digit increases after several weeks with numbers generally in the 30s and 40s. The largest current cluster is centred on the Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul, headed by Jun Kwang-hun, a controversial conservative pastor who is a leading figure in protests against President Moon Jae-in.

Reports had it that 315 cases of the pandemic were linked to the church during the last weekend, making it one of the biggest clusters so far, and around 3,400 members of the congregation had been asked to quarantine.

The report revealed further that so far, one in six of the church members have been tested and confirmed to be positive with the deadly virus.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Sunday, August 16 reported 298 new cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria.