Officers are involved that the virus’s unfold may worsen after hundreds of demonstrators, together with Jun and members of his Sarang Jeil Church, marched in downtown Seoul on Saturday regardless of pleas from officers to remain dwelling.
Well being Ministry official Seong Yeon-il mentioned a coronavirus take a look at for Jun got here out positive on Monday, however couldn’t instantly verify whether or not he was exhibiting any signs.
South Korea reported 197 new instances of the virus on Monday, the fourth straight day of triple-digit will increase. Many of the new instances up to now few days have come from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan space, dwelling to about half of the nation’s 51 million individuals.
Church buildings have been a continuing supply of infections, with many failing to require worshipers to put on masks, or permitting them to sing in choirs or eat collectively.
Well being employees have thus far linked 319 infections to Jun’s church after finishing tests on about 2,000 of its 4,000 members. Police are pursuing some 700 church members who stay out of contact.
“The speed of positive tests (amongst church members) has thus far been excessive, at 16.1%, so the scenario requires fast testing and isolation,” Vice Well being Minister Kim Gang-lip mentioned throughout a virus briefing. He urged anybody who participated within the weekend protest to return ahead for testing in the event that they expertise fever or different signs.
Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of South Korea’s Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, mentioned there’s concern that the outbreak at the church may unfold nationwide by way of its members’ actions, and well being employees are tracing the contacts of the church’s virus carriers.
“We imagine we’re within the early stage of a significant outbreak,” she mentioned.
President Moon Jae-in’s authorities has strengthened social distancing restrictions within the Seoul metropolitan space — a transfer it had resisted for months out of financial considerations — and urged residents to keep away from visiting different elements of the nation for 2 weeks.
Jun’s church has grow to be South Korea’s second-biggest virus cluster, behind a department of the secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus within the southeastern metropolis of Daegu that was tied to greater than 5,000 instances following a surge of infections within the area in late February and March.
The nation managed to stabilize the outbreak in Daegu and close by areas by April after concentrating public well being assets and personnel nationwide. Well being employees had been capable of rapidly ramp up testing and aggressively hint contacts by extensively utilizing cellphone location knowledge and credit-card data, permitting the nation to climate the outbreak with out main lockdowns.
However the resurgence of the virus within the better capital space — which has 10 occasions extra individuals than Daegu — has been a impolite awakening for a rustic that had been desirous to tout its beneficial properties towards the virus.
Whereas it had been simpler for well being employees to comprise the outbreak within the Daegu area, the place infections had been largely tied to the Shincheonji church, they’re now struggling to trace transmissions and predict an infection routes within the Seoul space, the place clusters have been popping up from church buildings, eating places, colleges and different locations.
Moon’s authorities is urgent fees towards Jun for allegedly disrupting disease-control efforts by ignoring orders to self-isolate, discouraging worshipers from getting examined and under-reporting the church’s membership to keep away from broader quarantines.
Jun’s lawyer, Kang Yeon-jae, denied the accusations throughout a information convention Monday, insisting that he solely obtained self-isolation orders after returning dwelling from Saturday’s rally.
Throughout Saturday’s protest, Jun, who is thought for provocative speeches which are typically stuffed with weird claims, mentioned the outbreak at his church was a results of an assault, accusing an unspecified opponent of “pouring” the virus onto the church. The protesters, who sporadically clashed with police, shouted slogans accusing Moon of coverage failures, corruption and kowtowing to North Korea.
There’s a chance that Jun could possibly be arrested for the second time this 12 months, with prosecutors asking a Seoul court docket to revoke his bail.
Jun was indicted in March on fees of violating election legal guidelines forward of April’s parliamentary elections by allegedly asking individuals at his rallies to vote towards Moon’s get together, which might be unlawful as a result of the official campaigning interval hadn’t but began. Jun’s bail was granted given that he doesn’t participate in rallies that could possibly be associated to his pending case.
Shincheonji’s 88-year-old chairman, Lee Man-hee, was arrested earlier this month over fees that the church hid some members and under-reported gatherings. Lee and his church have steadfastly denied the accusations, saying they’re cooperating with well being authorities.
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