Seoul (AFP)
The number of coronavirus patients has increased by 123 cases in South Korea, for a total of 556, in addition to two new deaths, for a total of four deaths linked to the epidemic, health authorities announced on Sunday.
Among the latest cases identified, 75 were linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a Christian sect strongly affected by Covid-19, said the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) in a statement.
The fourth death was that of a man who was in a hospital in Cheongdo, a town linked to this sect, in which around 100 cases of contamination were detected.
In total, hundreds of sect members are now infected, a contagion that started with a 61-year-old woman who had a fever on February 10 and attended at least four religious services in the city of Daegu before to be diagnosed positive for the coronavirus.
Daegu, the fourth city in South Korea with 2.5 million inhabitants, and Cheongdo, birthplace of Lee Man-hee, founder of the Church of Shincheonji of Jesus, are close to each other. They were declared Friday as "special management areas" by the South Korean authorities.
© 2020 AFP