Police Request Arrest Warrants for Two BTJ Yeolbang Center Officials on Charges of Obstructing Epidemiological Investigation

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The police have applied for arrest warrants against the officials of the BTJ Yeolhap Center in Sangju-si, Gyeongbuk, who have shown uncooperative attitudes toward the epidemiological investigation by the quarantine authorities, such as not providing the list of attendees at the missionary event.

The Sangju Police Station in Gyeongbuk applied for arrest warrants on the 12th against two officials of the BTJ Yeolhap Center on charges of violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. They are suspected of obstructing the epidemiological investigation by not providing the list of 500 attendees at the missionary event held at the BTJ Yeolhap Center in Hwaseo-myeon, Sangju-si, on November 27-28 last year.

Sangju City requested the list by December 4 last year after attendees of the BTJ Yeolhap Center were consecutively confirmed positive for COVID-19, but the center reportedly submitted it late on the 17th. The quarantine authorities believe that COVID-19 transmission occurred mainly among the believers who visited during this period.

A police official explained, "We applied for the arrest warrants considering the possibility of evidence destruction."

Meanwhile, as of midnight on the same day, the cumulative number of COVID-19 confirmed cases related to the BTJ Yeolhap Center was counted at 576. In particular, among the 2,797 people who visited the center from November 27 to December 27 last year, only 924 (33%) underwent diagnostic testing, while the remaining 1,873 (67%) have not yet been tested.

Lee Sang-won, head of the Epidemiological Investigation and Analysis Team at the Central Disease Control Headquarters, said at a briefing that "Currently, local governments are individually contacting visitors to strongly recommend testing. However, a significant number of people do not respond to the contact, or the contact information of visitors was found to be inaccurately recorded. Also, many attendees have their mobile phones turned off, making epidemiological tracking difficult."

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