Visitor to Itaewon hiding 'hagwon instructor' status... 8 secondary infections in Incheon

Conducted Lectures and Private Tutoring While Pretending to Be Unemployed
Students, Colleagues, and Parents Tested Positive... Church Visitors Also Included
Concerns Over Large-Scale Community Spread Including 3rd Generation Transmission

On the 11th, citizens who visited the screening clinic set up at Yongsan-gu Public Health Center in Seoul, amid concerns about the spread of COVID-19 originating from Itaewon clubs, are lining up to get tested. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy reporters Choi Dae-yeol and Kim Heung-soon] On the 13th, eight additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) related to the Itaewon clubs were reported in Incheon. All are secondary infections resulting from contact with club visitors. Since teenagers, including middle and high school students, are among the cases and some patients visited churches before testing positive, there are concerns about large-scale community transmission such as tertiary spread.

Park Nam-chun, mayor of Incheon, held an emergency press conference at Incheon City Hall at 10 a.m. that day and said, "At 3:30 a.m. today, a cluster of eight COVID-19 infections caused by a confirmed patient who visited an Itaewon club occurred," adding, "One fellow instructor and six students, as well as one parent, who had direct or indirect contact with patient No. 102, a local academy instructor in Incheon, tested positive in diagnostic tests."

Patient No. 102 in Incheon is a 25-year-old male who visited an Itaewon club on the night of the 2nd and was confirmed positive on the 9th. During the initial investigation by quarantine authorities, he did not disclose that he was an academy instructor and stated that he was unemployed. However, after Incheon City analyzed his location through GPS and re-interviewed him, it was confirmed that he gave a lecture once at a private academy in Michuhol-gu on the 6th. On the 7th, he also conducted private tutoring in Yeonsu-gu.

Some of the contacts were found to have visited churches in Michuhol-gu and Dong-gu before being confirmed positive. Incheon City decided to file charges against patient No. 102 for false statements during the epidemiological investigation, including hiding the fact that he was an academy instructor, under the "Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act." In addition, secondary infections caused by Itaewon club visitors were reported on the same day in Busan, Gongju in Chungnam, and Geoje in Gyeongnam.

Meanwhile, as of midnight that day, 26 new domestic COVID-19 cases were confirmed, with 22 occurring in the community. Including additional confirmed cases in Incheon, the number of new patients in the region was identified as at least 34 as of 10 a.m.

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