Secretive church at center of South Korea's explosive coronavirus outbreak (1 of 2)

DAEGU/SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - An So-young had a gut feeling that the 31st person in South Korea to test positive for the coronavirus might be a member of the controversial religious sect she quit four years ago. The person, dubbed “Patient 31,” was the first of an explosive wave of cases that made South Korea’s outbreak the largest outside of China. What caught An’s attention was how health authorities were struggling to track the woman’s movements before she was tested. “That’s their culture, they have to hide their movements, and that’s why I guessed she was with Shincheonji,” An, 27, said in an interview, referring to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

Patient 31 attended services at the church’s branch in the southeastern city of Daegu this month, staying for two hours each time, before testing positive on Feb. 18. The South Korean disease control chief Jeong Eun-kyeong said the church’s services, where thousands of people sit on the floor, shoulder-to-shoulder, for hours, could have contributed to the surges. “You would be 5 centimeters away from the person who sits next to you, and have to say ‘Amen’ after every sentence the pastor speaks - it’s the best environment for the virus to spread,” said An, who is now a theology student. In a media interview, Patient 31 said she did not refuse to be tested. But health authorities said she sought care at a traditional medicine hospital in Daegu after a minor car accident, where a medical worker who treated her later tested positive for the virus. While running a fever, she went to a buffet at a hotel and the church services.

Shincheonji is in the biggest crisis in its 36-year history, as hundreds of members have tested positive for the virus, SARS-CoV-2. All of its 210,000 known followers are being tested amid unprecedented scrutiny from authorities and the public. After initial resistance, the church released the addresses of 1,100 facilities around the country - 82 churches and 1,018 “affiliates,” - and asked the public to avoid making “groundless criticism.” It was the “biggest victim of the virus,” it said. Calls by Reuters to the church’s headquarters seeking comment went unanswered.

During a visit to the Daegu branch on Friday, a man who identified himself as a member said he was the only one there and told Reuters that “all of our 9,000 members are taking self-quarantine measures in compliance with the government instruction.” He said the building was disinfected twice last week.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-southkorea-church/secretive-church-at-center-of-south-koreas-explosive-coronavirus-outbreak-idUSKCN20L0Q8

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The Korean clusters

How coronavirus cases exploded in South Korean churches and hospitals

South Korea has announced hundreds of new coronavirus cases in the space of only a few days and raised its infectious disease alert to the highest level. The surge in cases has centred around two main clusters from a church in Daegu city and a nearby hospital. The new outbreak has pushed South Korea’s tally of confirmed cases much higher than anywhere else outside of China. The virus was first confirmed in the country on Jan. 20 when a 35-year-old Chinese woman who flew from Wuhan, China to Incheon international airport, which serves Seoul, was isolated upon entry into the country. In the four weeks following the incident, South Korea managed to avoid a major outbreak with only 30 people contracting the virus, despite many interactions between those later confirmed as being sick and hundreds more people being identified as contacts of the sick patients. This changed with the emergence of “Patient 31.”

Patient 31

It’s not clear where Patient 31 became infected with the virus, but in the days before her diagnosis, she travelled to crowded spots in Daegu, as well as in the capital Seoul. On February 6 she was in a minor traffic accident in Daegu, and checked herself into an Oriental medicine hospital. While at that hospital, she attended services at the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, on February 9 and again on February 16.

In between those visits, on February 15, doctors at the hospital said they first suggested she be tested for the coronavirus, as she had a high fever. Instead, the woman went to a buffet lunch with a friend at a hotel. In an interview with local newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, the woman denied that doctors had advised her to be tested. As her symptoms worsened, however, doctors say they once again advised her to be tested. On February 17, she finally went to another hospital for the test. The next day, health authorities announced she was the country’s 31st confirmed case. In only a matter of days, those numbers had soared as hundreds of people at the Shincheonji Church and surrounding areas tested positive.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC) said on Saturday they had obtained a list of 9,300 people who had attended those two Shincheonji church services, around 1,200 of whom had complained of flu-like symptoms. Hundreds of cases have now been confirmed there. A second major cluster emerged from a nearby hospital in Cheongdo, a county close to Daegu. Authorities are investigating links between the church in Daegu and a funeral service at the hospital, which a number of church members attended from January 31-February 2. If confirmed, it means Patient 31 could be linked to both clusters. Between Daegu and Cheongdo county, the areas account for around 80 percent of the cases in the entire country.

Authorities are still investigating how Patient 31 contracted the virus, having no recent record of overseas travel or earlier known contact with other confirmed cases. Almost all major cities and provinces have now reported some infections. However, Daegu, where the church is located, and nearby Gyeongbuk, where the hospital is located, have by far the most cases. Seoul, a metropolitan area of more than 25 million people, has only a small portion.

“The coronavirus is more contagious and spreads quickly during the early stage of the outbreak, and therefore preemptive measures are needed considering a possibility that the virus could develop to a nationwide spread from a community spread,” health minister Park Neung-hoo told a news conference. “We believe the next week to 10 days will be crucial to determining how far the coronavirus spreads.”

https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-SOUTHKOREA-CLUSTERS/0100B5G33SB/index.html