Covid-19: South Korea repatriates 300 sailors after mass infection
None of the South Korean sailors from the destroyer Cheonghae were vaccinated, despite symptoms of Covid-19 appearing in some of them.
AFP - CHOI JAE-HO
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
South Korea is now recording its worst mass infection with Covid-19 in its army.
Out of 301 sailors aboard a destroyer on a counter-piracy mission off East Africa, 247 have tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Faced with this unprecedented situation, two South Korean military planes were dispatched this Sunday and are currently carrying out an operation to repatriate all crew members.
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With our correspondent in Seoul,
Louis Palligiano
Never before has a military unit deployed overseas been ordered to withdraw completely following a contagious disease.
This Monday morning, among the 301 sailors aboard the destroyer Munmu le Grand, 247 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus were reported, or 82% of the entire contingent, 50 soldiers tested negative and four others are still awaiting results. .
To quickly repatriate all members of the Cheonghae unit to South Korea where a special medical center awaits them, two tanker planes have been sent to East Africa.
They landed this Monday morning near the port where the destroyer is moored.
They are carrying 200 soldiers, all fully vaccinated, whose mission is to regain control of the ship in order to lead it into South Korean waters.
No vaccinated in the crew
Many voices are raised in Korea to criticize the mismanagement of the outbreak and the fact that no member of the crew was vaccinated.
Several dozen of them however reported having had symptoms related to Covid-19 a few days after a stopover.
But the command gave them rapid screening tests instead of PCR tests, all of which were negative.
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See also: Covid-19: thanks to the acceleration of vaccination, South Korea lightens its rules
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