Cluster Infection at Cathedral... 8 Confirmed Cases Including Goyang Wondang Cathedral Parishioners

Goyang City Orders Closure of Church Amid Concerns of Further Spread

A cluster infection involving church members and their families occurred at Wondang Catholic Church in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. As a result, Goyang City ordered the church to be closed as of the 7th. The photo shows a part of the Wondang Catholic Church website.

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] On the 7th, five parishioners of Wondang Catholic Church in Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province, were newly confirmed positive for COVID-19. This brings the total number of confirmed cases related to the church to eight, including six parishioners and two family members.

As the possibility of additional cases is considered significant, Goyang City has ordered the closure of the church. This is the first instance of a cluster infection occurring at a religious facility in Goyang.

At 9:30 PM on the same day, Goyang City announced that two parishioners of Wondang Catholic Church (residing in Seongsadong and Jugyodong, Deogyang-gu) were newly confirmed positive for COVID-19. Although asymptomatic, after other parishioners tested positive earlier that morning, they visited the Deogyang-gu Public Health Center screening clinic for testing and were confirmed positive.

The Deogyang-gu Public Health Center, judging the COVID-19 cases among Wondang Catholic Church parishioners to be serious, set up an on-site screening clinic at the church that afternoon and conducted comprehensive testing on 216 parishioners who had recently attended mass. Separately, the health center collected specimens from 247 individuals for COVID-19 testing. The results of these tests are expected to be released on the morning of the 8th.

On the afternoon of the same day, parishioners A (resident of Seongsadong, Deogyang-gu) and B (resident of Seongsadong) were confirmed positive, and parishioner C (resident of Jugyodong, Deogyang-gu) was confirmed positive in the morning. A began experiencing a sore throat on the 29th of last month and developed diarrhea symptoms starting on the 6th of this month.

B was asymptomatic, while C showed symptoms such as body aches and diarrhea from the 1st and visited the screening clinic at Myeongji Hospital on the 6th for testing.

Earlier, parishioner D of Wondang Catholic Church was confirmed positive on the 2nd. According to the initial epidemiological investigation, C and D attended mass at the church on the 28th to 30th of last month and on the 3rd of this month.

This brings the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among Wondang Catholic Church parishioners to six.

Additionally, D’s daughter and granddaughter, who lived with D, were tested for COVID-19 late on the afternoon of the 2nd and confirmed positive on the morning of the 3rd. The daughter and granddaughter reportedly experienced fatigue, muscle pain, chills, and loss of taste and smell starting from the 29th of last month.

The health authorities transferred A to Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Paju Hospital, and B and C to Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Anseong Hospital.

Mayor Lee Jaejun stated, "We will do our best to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community and ensure citizens' safety through rapid measures such as comprehensive testing."

Meanwhile, the previous cluster infection related to a church involved 17 Catholic believers from the Andong Diocese who had returned from a pilgrimage to Israel in February, making this the second case involving Wondang Catholic Church in Goyang.