Gwacheon City Begins Independent Survey of 1,033 Shincheonji Gwacheon Followers

On the 25th, when Gyeonggi Province began securing the Shincheonji list and conducting epidemiological investigations related to COVID-19, a forced epidemiological investigation was taking place inside the affiliated institution of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi./Gwacheon=Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Gwacheon City in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 27th that it has begun a full-scale investigation of 1,033 Shincheonji followers residing in Gwacheon.

The Shincheonji followers under investigation by Gwacheon City are those who attended a worship service on the 16th with two confirmed COVID-19 cases at the Shincheonji headquarters. The two confirmed cases attended from Seocho-gu, Seoul, and Anyang City, Gyeonggi Province, respectively.

According to data obtained from the Shincheonji headquarters, a total of 10,602 followers attended the worship service that day, of which 1,033 were Gwacheon residents.

Among the Gwacheon residents, 208 attended the worship service at the same time (noon on the 16th) as the two confirmed cases, and 825 attended at different times.

Gwacheon City urgently deployed 40 public officials to conduct a full investigation of the 208 attendees at the noon worship service on the 16th, and plans to conduct specimen tests in order of urgency based on symptom presence and degree of contact.

To facilitate this, two additional temporary screening clinics were set up in the parking lot between Gwacheon Public Health Center and City Hall, operating a total of three screening clinics.

Those who attended worship services after noon will be classified as subjects for active monitoring and managed accordingly.

Regarding the two young Shincheonji followers residing at the Shincheonji dormitory in front of the Youth Training Center who were confirmed positive on the 26th, Gwacheon City placed the dormitory under cohort quarantine and assigned public officials to directly manage compliance with self-quarantine.

Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province, having obtained a list of approximately 34,000 Shincheonji followers from the Shincheonji Gwacheon headquarters on the 25th, is conducting a direct full-scale COVID-19 investigation without assistance from city or county governments.