Park Dae-chul: "No Confirmed Cases During Five Days of Gwanghwamun Rally... Stop the Witch Hunt"

Park Dae-chul, member of the People Power Party./Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] On the 7th, Park Dae-chul, a member of the People Power Party, claimed that "there were no confirmed COVID-19 cases related to the Liberation Day rally during the five days from the 14th to the 18th of last month," arguing that the Gwanghwamun rally was not related to the resurgence of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

In a post on his Facebook on the same day, Park cited data submitted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, explaining, "There were 166 confirmed cases on the day of the Gwanghwamun rally, the 15th, 279 on the 16th, 197 on the 17th, and 246 on the 18th. Among these, there was not a single case related to the Gwanghwamun rally."

He added, "There was not a single case where the COVID-19 virus was detected within 48 hours after the last contact," and "Since the confirmed case statistics are based on midnight daily, it means that until the 18th of the same month, the Gwanghwamun rally was unrelated."

On the afternoon of the 15th of last month, Pastor Jeon Gwang-hoon of Sarang Jeil Church is speaking at a rally condemning the government and ruling party held in front of Donghwa Duty Free Shop in Jongno-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Park said, "The number of confirmed cases, which had been in double digits, surged to triple digits at 103 on the 14th, the day before the Gwanghwamun rally. The positivity rate, which had been around 1%, also skyrocketed to 4.3% on the 16th, the day after the rally," adding, "The positivity rate actually decreased to 1.65% on the 19th, and then showed a decline or stagnation with 1.51% on the 20th, 1.62% on the 21st, and 1.53% on the 22nd."

He emphasized, "The claim that COVID-19 had already begun to resurge before the Gwanghwamun rally has been proven by the numbers," and "Regardless of the issues related to quarantine measures at a densely packed rally, the witch hunt that tries to blame a specific group for the cause of the resurgence must stop."

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