South Korea has identified 17 more coronavirus patients linked to a nightclub cluster in Seoul, Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said today.
Last weekend, authorities in the capital shut down all nightclubs and bars after a spike in cases was connected to the clubbing district Itaewon.
There are now a total of 148 cases in the nightclub cluster.
Authorities raced to track down people who may have been in the area during the incubation period, using cell phone data and credit card records. They have tested tens of thousands of people in the past week alone.
The country has now recorded 11,018 coronavirus cases and 260 deaths, according to Kim and data from Johns Hopkins University.
Church alert: Authorities feared the outbreak of another possible cluster in the city of Incheon, where two infected people attended church services along with 1,000 others.
However, a fresh crisis appears to have been avoided — except for five people whose results are pending, all members of the congregation have tested negative.
Kim said it was likely because 300 of the 1,000 church attendees had been watching the service online, and the remaining 700 people who physically attended had worn masks and gloves and sat apart from each other.
“We can effectively stop secondary and tertiary mass infections through distancing,” Kim said.
