Confirmed Cases Related to Lee Eon-ju Camp Increase to 8... Election Campaign Suspended Until the 19th

6 Camp Visitors Infected, Followed by 2 Contacts... Candidate Lee Also Self-Quarantined
Health Authorities Impose Fines for Guideline Violations... Investigating Incomplete Visitor Logs

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] A cluster infection of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred at the election office of Lee Eon-ju, the People Power Party's preliminary candidate for the Busan mayoral by-election, leading to Lee entering self-quarantine.

On the morning of the 14th, Lee's campaign team announced that they received a self-quarantine notice from the Busanjin-gu Public Health Center and canceled all schedules until noon on the 19th.

Lee said, "I apologize for causing concern to the citizens of Busan as a confirmed case emerged among visitors supporting me," adding, "To prevent additional confirmed cases, we will thoroughly check not only resident staff but also visitors and implement COVID-19 countermeasures."

According to health authorities, six people who visited Lee's office located in Jeonpo-dong, Busanjin-gu, Busan, on the 30th of last month and the 5th of this month tested positive, and recently two more who had contact with them were additionally confirmed positive.

The event on the 30th was an appointment ceremony for senior campaign committee members, and the event on the 5th included a certificate awarding ceremony for religious figures and a support declaration by politicians from political parties.

At the event on the 5th, Lee gave a speech for over 15 minutes in front of attendees while wearing a mask, and an elder came to the podium and prayed for 30 seconds without wearing a mask. After the prayer, Lee shook hands while awarding a certificate to a campaign committee member.

The Busanjin-gu Office, which has jurisdiction, found that Lee's campaign team violated quarantine guidelines due to negligence in managing visitors and imposed a fine of 1.5 million KRW.

Additionally, it is known that further measures will be taken after investigating the poorly prepared visitor list of the election camp, including the omission of Lee's name in the initially submitted list by the campaign team.

Lee tested negative in the initial test but will suspend election activities until the end of the self-quarantine period on the 19th.

On the previous day (the 13th), Lee Jin-bok, another preliminary candidate from the same party who conducted a dialogue program with Lee, also underwent testing and temporarily suspended election schedules.

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