[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] A large number of employees of a water purifier door-to-door sales company who have been living together in a closed school in Ganghwa Island, Incheon, have tested positive for COVID-19. Notably, the closed school facility has been found to be illegally occupied for 10 years.
According to Incheon City and Ganghwa County on the 27th, 26 employees of the water purifier sales company living together in the closed school facility in Gilsang-myeon, Ganghwa County, and 3 people living together in a nearby commercial building tested positive for COVID-19.
Health authorities identified the group living arrangement during contact tracing after the first confirmed cases were reported?2 in Ganghwa County and 3 in Gwanak-gu?and confirmed additional infections.
Ganghwa County has determined that 57 people had contact with the confirmed cases at the closed school facility and issued an administrative order requiring all related personnel to undergo specimen testing.
Additionally, four confirmed cases who provided false statements regarding their movements have been reported or referred to the police for investigation on charges of violating the Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Act.
Ganghwa County is tracking about 20 people from the list of those who lived together who have not yet been tested for COVID-19. Furthermore, the door-to-door sales company is suspected to be related to a specific religion, and their activities are also being investigated.
Meanwhile, the closed school facility has reportedly been illegally occupied since 2012.
The facility, formerly known as 'Seontaek Branch School,' was used by 'Hanbit Tourism Training Center' under a lease contract with the Ganghwa Office of Education starting in 2002 after the school closed. However, the lease contract ended in 2012 due to unpaid rent, but related persons continued to illegally occupy the closed school facility.
In response, the Office of Education filed eviction and unjust enrichment lawsuits against the illegal occupants in 2014, and attempted forced eviction in 2017, but it failed, and the illegal occupation has continued to this day.
A Ganghwa Office of Education official stated, "Initially, the training center leased the facility to conduct history or oriental medicine-related education, but it has since been used for other purposes, and now people unrelated to the training center are illegally occupying it as a kind of residential space," adding, "Due to personal property such as fixtures in the closed school, forced eviction is difficult, and we are currently awaiting a court ruling."
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