Gov't to get tougher on churches to contain COVID-19

Medical staff take a sample from a citizen at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site in Gwangju, Wednesday. The southwestern city has reported more than 80 virus patients in about 10 days. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

The government plans to apply enhanced guidelines aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 to churches and other religious facilities as infection clusters traced to religious gatherings have continued to be reported across the country, the health authorities said Wednesday.

Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Kim Gang-lip said the enhanced rules will be applied to churches first, beginning from 6 p.m. Friday, banning them from organizing gatherings, such as Bible studies or choir practice, other than regular worship services.

Churches will also be banned from offering group meals, and required to install quick response (QR) code-based registration systems for visitors.

“The enhanced rules will be applied to churches nationwide,” Kim said during a media briefing. “We have yet to designate churches as a high-risk facilities, thus they will still be able to hold regular worship services. But they are required to comply with the enhanced guidelines.”

During regular worship services, church members are advised to refrain from praying aloud or singing together as such activities can launch respiratory droplets, according to the health authorities.

Church members are also required to wear face masks and keep a distance of at least one meter from each other.

Those in charge of church operations have been told to check the health of visitors, and forbid those with symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus to enter the related facility.

Any violators of those guidelines can face a fine of up to 3 million won ($2,500), and the administration can issue a “no-assembly” administrative order for the church, practically banning its operation.

Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) Director Jung Eun-kyeong said, “Besides churches, Buddhist temples and cathedrals are also at a similar risk of group infections. We will implement the enhanced rules applied to churches to temples and cathedrals if necessary.”

According to the KCDC, the country added 63 cases Tuesday ― 30 local and 33 imported infections ― raising the nation's total to 13,244. The death toll remained unchanged at 285.

The daily number of both local and imported cases increased from the respective 20 and 24 reported the previous day.

The continuous rise in the number of locally transmitted infections was largely attributed to clusters that have occurred at religious facilities.

A mega-church located in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, became a new hotbed of the virus infections, while cases traced to a Buddhist temple in the southwestern city of Gwangju have continued to be reported.

The KCDC said a total of 92 cases linked to the temple had been reported as of Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the number of the new cases coming in from overseas marked the highest in about three months, putting the health officials on high alert.