South Korea Monday reported 476 new cases of Coronavirus, taking the total number of COVID-19 infected people in the country to 4,212. This is the largest outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus outside China.
Although the daily number of cases were less than Sunday's when the country reported 586 news cases, the virus is spreading rapidly in South Korea. On Saturday, the country had reported its biggest daily jump of 813 confirmed coronavirus infections.
According to the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDCP), the number of dead rose to 22 from Sunday's 20. South Korea has the largest Coronavirus outbreak in the world outside mainland China.
In another development, the city government of Seoul has ordered to launch a murder investigation into a controversial church at the heart of the virus outbreak. Founder and chairman of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Lee Man-Hee will face murder charges after authorities held the church liable for refusing to co-operate with efforts to stop the outbreak.
KCDCP said some members of church visited the Wuhan
The KCDCP said that some members of the church had visited the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak. However, the agency was yet to determine if they played a role in the spread of the virus in South Korea.
Of the new cases, 377 were from the southern city of Daegu, where a branch of Shincheonji Church is located. Most of South Korea's Coronavirus cases are said to have been traced with the church.
The KCDCP believe the number of confirmed cases in South Korea may jump further in the coming days as health authorities have begun testing more than 210,000 members of Daegu's Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Health authorities suspect that more than half of the country's virus cases were linked with Shincheonji, a home-grown religious sect.
South Korea confirmed its first new coronavirus case on January 20 when a Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, tested positive for the virus. Globally, the virus has killed more than 3,000 people with most of the deaths taking place in mainland China.
