Cluster infection provided? Gimhae City appeal statement "It was a proactive response to find hidden infections"

Guide Foreigners' Specific Religious Events Outdoors to Reduce Infection Risk in Individual Gatherings

Religious event for the Islamic foreign community held in Gimhae City.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Sang-hyun] A preemptive response to find hidden infected individuals, but did allowing a foreign religious gathering cause a mass infection?

Gimhae City, Gyeongnam, issued an appeal on the 16th in response to some media reports claiming that a "mass COVID-19 infection occurred at a specific religious gathering" held on the 13th.

The city explained that it took preemptive measures to identify infected individuals among the foreign participants and held the event outdoors to reduce infection concerns, meaning the event itself was not the cause of the mass infection.

In the appeal, Gimhae City stated, "It is not true that a mass infection occurred due to a specific religious gathering held on the 13th at the Gaya Theme Park parking lot in the jurisdiction."

The religious event is an annual gathering of foreigners from a specific cultural group, which had previously been held indoors at worship venues, and some had been meeting individually without control to conduct the event, Gimhae City explained.

According to Gimhae City, individual group meetings could rather cause the spread of community infections, so this year they encouraged outdoor gatherings with a lower risk of infection, ensured compliance with quarantine rules at the event, and collected attendee lists through 11 Safe Call phone numbers to identify hidden infected individuals as a preemptive measure.

Additionally, 60 staff members were deployed on-site to manage social distancing of more than 2 meters between individuals, mask-wearing, prohibition of praise activities, and no food consumption during the event.

Gimhae City decided on this preemptive response due to sporadic foreign confirmed cases occurring in early May, difficulties in identifying contacts and infection routes, and increasing concerns about infection spread.

Since most foreign attendees shared the same nationality as confirmed cases, a screening clinic was set up at the venue to encourage preemptive diagnostic testing for foreigners whose movement overlapped with confirmed cases or who showed symptoms.

Gimhae City announced that 72 people were tested on the day of the event, discovering 10 confirmed cases (including one confirmed case from another region).

A Gimhae City official said, "Considering the characteristics of the area where many foreigners reside, we judged that small-scale infections among specific foreigners are progressing within the community. Regardless of event attendance, we have tested about 2,000 foreigners so far and found an additional 29 confirmed cases (including 3 foreigners from other regions)."

Gimhae City explained that this was a preemptive response to find hidden infected individuals to cut off local infection links and prevent the spread throughout the entire city.

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