Thursday, February 27, 2020

The Korean clusters How coronavirus cases exploded in South Korean churches and hospitals

South Korea has announced hundreds of new coronavirus cases in the space of only a few days and raised its infectious disease alert to the highest level. The surge in cases has centred around two main clusters from a church in Daegu city and a nearby hospital. The new outbreak has pushed South Korea’s tally of confirmed cases much higher than anywhere else outside of China.
The virus was first confirmed in the country on Jan. 20 when a 35-year-old Chinese woman who flew from Wuhan, China to Incheon international airport, which serves Seoul, was isolated upon entry into the country. In the four weeks following the incident, South Korea managed to avoid a major outbreak with only 30 people contracting the virus, despite many interactions between those later confirmed as being sick and hundreds more people being identified as contacts of the sick patients.
This changed with the emergence of “Patient 31.”


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