Coronavirus: South Korea reports 10 deaths, 144 new cases taking total to 977
- Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu is at the heart of the outbreak and the group has agreed to share information about all members with officials
- Seoul plans to test more than 200,000 members of the church, while the US and Korea militaries eye scaling back joint drills
Alongside the near 15-fold increase in reported infections in one week came the country’s 10th confirmed fatality from the virus, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Scores of events have been cancelled or postponed as the outbreak has spread in the world’s 12th-largest economy, from K-pop concerts to the start of the K-league football season, with casualties on Tuesday including parliamentary sessions and the World Team Table Tennis championships.
More than 80 per cent of the infections have been in South Korea’s fourth-largest city Daegu and neighbouring North Gyeongsang province.
“The situation is very grave,” President Moon Jae-in said during a visit to Daegu on Tuesday, wearing the uniform of a government emergency official and vowing full government support. “We will achieve a victory in the fight against this virus.”
Most of the country’s infections are linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, a group that mainstream churches see as a cult. Shincheonji claims its founder, Lee Man-hee, has donned the mantle of Jesus Christ and will take 144,000 people with him to heaven on the day of judgment.
The church on Tuesday said it had agreed to provide authorities with the names of all its members in South Korea, estimated by media at about 215,000 people. The government plans to conduct coronavirus tests on all of the members “as soon as possible” once it has the information, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.