Seongdong District Office Female Employee Tests Negative in First Retest (Comprehensive)

Female employee at Seoul Medical Center tests negative in first retest... 10 close contacts including family and 59 coworkers also test negative... Assistant pastor and missionary's child at Myeongseong Church who tested negative in first retest also confirmed negative...

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] A female employee (41) of Seongdong District Office tested negative in the first test.

She was immediately retested upon admission to the isolation hospital and received a negative result.

So far, the news reported that this female employee lives in an apartment in Amsa-dong, Gangdong-gu, where the associate pastor of Myeongseong Church is also residing.

According to CCTV movement tracking, the female employee took the same apartment elevator as the associate pastor of Myeongseong Church. This led to speculation that she might have been infected with the COVID-19 virus from the associate pastor during the approximately one minute they shared the elevator.

However, the associate pastor of Myeongseong Church and the missionary’s child tested negative in the first retest on the 28th.

On the 29th at around 8 p.m., Lee Jung-hoon, mayor of Gangdong-gu, posted on his Facebook, "The third confirmed case in Gangdong-gu (associate pastor of Myeongseong Church) and the missionary acquaintance’s child, who were widely reported in the media, tested negative in the first COVID-19 retest on the 28th, four days after the confirmed diagnosis," adding, "If the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms a negative result in the second retest on March 2, the quarantine will be lifted."

This is certainly good news. Since the associate pastor of Myeongseong Church serves a congregation of over 60,000 registered members, there was significant public concern that Myeongseong Church might become a second COVID-19 hotspot following Shincheonji.

In particular, all contacts, including the 10 family members living with the female employee, tested negative, which undermines the credibility of the elevator infection theory.

Additionally, all 59 employees who worked with the female employee at Seongdong District Office also tested negative, further casting doubt on the elevator infection theory.

The female employee is expected to be released from quarantine if she tests negative in the second retest on the 1st.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.