Young people urged to keep social distancing

Members of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, the biggest Protestant church in the country, attend a Sunday service, as the church reopened after the government eased the social distancing measures amid a slowdown in new COVID-19 cases. /Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

The government is urging people in their 20s and 30s to continue to practice social distancing, as young people are more likely to become coronavirus “super spreaders” because of their active social life, according to Korea's top infectious disease official Sunday. Those in their 20s and 30s account for 27 percent of coronavirus patients.

Korea reported a number of confirmed cases below 15 for the eighth consecutive day, but health authorities kept calling for people, especially those in their 20s, to comply with the social distancing measures.

“Those in their 20s have a high possibility of being super spreaders as they often have a wide range of activities. They can come into contact with many people and unwittingly spread the virus especially in confined spaces such as a nightclub. The government urged them to pay special attention to following the social distancing guidelines,” Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), said during a regular press briefing at the government complex in Sejong.

According to the KCDC, a 19-year-old man living in Daegu had visited a nightclub in Busan twice before he was confirmed to be infected with the virus last week. Some 480 people had visited the facility during the same days as his visits, and the health authorities began to track others who might have come in contact with the man.

The KCDC said 10 new infections were detected on Saturday, bringing the nation's total to 10,728. The death toll from the virus rose by two to 242. A total of 8,717 patients have been released from quarantine after recovery.

One new case was reported in Daegu, with continuing signs of a slowdown in the region. Other major provinces and cities also reported infections, with Busan adding one new case and Gyeonggi Province seeing six. North Jeolla Province reported one, and one more was detected at immigration checkpoints.

Although fewer than 10 daily new cases have been detected here since April 18, health authorities remain on high alert over cluster infections at churches and hospitals, as well as imported cases. The government eased some restrictions in the guidelines last Sunday, but officials have warned that a new wave of infections could come at any time because the virus can spread through people who have no symptoms.

Meanwhile, a paper has been published outlining epidemiological investigations and quarantine procedures at the time of the massive COVID-19 infection at a call center in Guro-gu, southwestern Seoul. KCDC Director Jeong was the main author of the paper. It is the first time that Jeong has published a paper on the coronavirus.

According to the latest issue of the "Emerging Infectious Diseases," a medical journal published by the U.S. CDC, the paper was published on the prevention of mass infections at the Guro call center building last month. Quarantine officials from Seoul City, Incheon City and Gyeonggi Province also contributed to the paper.

The research team suggested that Korea's handling of the call center group infection could have helped prevent the virus' spread to vulnerable groups.