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In the South Korean city of Daegu, the outbreak has been centered around the Shincheonji religious group.
Some 300 members of the group have tested positive for the virus, and more than 9,000 practitioners have been put into self-isolation while they are tested by health authorities. The infection is believed to have spread rapidly because of the mass worship sessions the group holds, which puts them in close contact with one another for long periods of time.
A Christian-inspired new religious movement centered around the personality of its founder and chairman, Lee Man-hee, the outbreak has brought intense scrutiny and no small amount of hostility on the group. Of those South Koreans who identify as religious, more than 60% belong to a mainstream Christian denomination.
Kim So-il, a project director at Shincheonji, compared the recent criticism of the group to a "19th century witch-hunt."
"It's unfair that all people rebuke Shincheonji," he told CNN, adding that the group was in "great difficulty" right now."
Speaking Sunday, a Shincheonji representative told reporters that practitioners are the "biggest victims" of the virus, and urged people to "refrain from hate and groundless attack."
Police in Daegu said Sunday that they had deployed about 600 officers to locate the 670 members of the Shincheonji religious group whose whereabouts are unknown. Officers were visiting their registered addresses and using telecommunications service providers' location tracking information, police said.
According to the South Korean law on the prevention of infectious diseases, health authorities are able to seek help from police and telecommunication service providers are obliged to provide information when requested by the police.
The virus has spread beyond the Shincheonji members, however, with separate outbreaks in a hospital near Daegu, as well as among the country's military. As of Monday, more than 760 cases had been confirmed nationwide, and seven deaths.
( posted on cnn website 24 Feb 2020)
Some 300 members of the group have tested positive for the virus, and more than 9,000 practitioners have been put into self-isolation while they are tested by health authorities. The infection is believed to have spread rapidly because of the mass worship sessions the group holds, which puts them in close contact with one another for long periods of time.
A Christian-inspired new religious movement centered around the personality of its founder and chairman, Lee Man-hee, the outbreak has brought intense scrutiny and no small amount of hostility on the group. Of those South Koreans who identify as religious, more than 60% belong to a mainstream Christian denomination.
Kim So-il, a project director at Shincheonji, compared the recent criticism of the group to a "19th century witch-hunt."
"It's unfair that all people rebuke Shincheonji," he told CNN, adding that the group was in "great difficulty" right now."
Speaking Sunday, a Shincheonji representative told reporters that practitioners are the "biggest victims" of the virus, and urged people to "refrain from hate and groundless attack."
Police in Daegu said Sunday that they had deployed about 600 officers to locate the 670 members of the Shincheonji religious group whose whereabouts are unknown. Officers were visiting their registered addresses and using telecommunications service providers' location tracking information, police said.
According to the South Korean law on the prevention of infectious diseases, health authorities are able to seek help from police and telecommunication service providers are obliged to provide information when requested by the police.
The virus has spread beyond the Shincheonji members, however, with separate outbreaks in a hospital near Daegu, as well as among the country's military. As of Monday, more than 760 cases had been confirmed nationwide, and seven deaths.
( posted on cnn website 24 Feb 2020)