Yoon Tae-ho: "It Is Quite Difficult to Determine the Scale of Contacts Participating in the Rally"

Yoon Tae-ho, Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' Quarantine General Team, is conducting a regular briefing on COVID-19 at the Government Sejong Complex in Sejong City last June. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Min Jun-young] Since the 13th, the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has reached triple digits, spreading the infection. Yoon Tae-ho, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' quarantine team, diagnosed, "Looking at the current speed of increase in confirmed cases, there are characteristics quite similar to the early stage of the Daegu situation."

In an interview with CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' on the 18th, Head Yoon said, "The situations in Daegu involved cluster outbreaks centered around a specific group called Shincheonji. Of course, in the metropolitan area, there have been large-scale cluster outbreaks related to the Sarang Jeil Church, but infections are also occurring in other facilities and living areas, so we recognize this as a serious period."

He explained the cause of the rapid increase in COVID-19 confirmed cases over three days, saying, "Considering the incubation period of COVID-19, the long rainy season seems to have led to indoor activities being significantly higher than usual. As a result, infections occurred unknowingly, and especially in some groups where people had prolonged contact, infections seem to have spread substantially and covertly without their knowledge."

Additionally, Head Yoon revealed that on the 15th, Pastor Jeon Gwang-hoon of Sarang Jeil Church was notified by Seongbuk-gu Office that he was subject to self-quarantine.

He said, "As far as we know, a public official from Seongbuk-gu Office went directly to deliver the notice around 2 p.m. on the 15th. If this person had contact information, a text message notice would have been sent earlier instructing self-quarantine and testing. The problem is that Pastor Jeon was omitted from the list submitted by the church, so we need to verify whether he received the text message."

Regarding the scale of contacts who interacted with Pastor Jeon among attendees of the Gwanghwamun rally that day, he added, "We have no choice but to refer to video materials to estimate the number of contacts who participated in the rally, and we can only identify them through interviews with those who attended. Currently, it is quite difficult to determine the exact scale."

He continued, "Before testing, we need to classify and contact those individuals as contacts. The problem is that not only those identified through broadcasts and videos but also many others who are not visible in the videos likely had contact. This is the most challenging part for us."

Regarding the possibility of raising social distancing to level 3, he said, "If necessary, we will raise it to level 3, but level 2 has not been fully implemented yet. Therefore, we are having rapid and in-depth internal discussions about fully applying level 2."

He added, "We have experienced the situations in Daegu and Gyeongbuk and have continuously checked response preparations by region. Compared to the situations in March and June, we are now better prepared. We are continuously monitoring the securing of beds in infectious disease-dedicated hospitals and the rapid expansion of residential treatment centers, collaborating with local governments in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, and the metropolitan area."

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