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| Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jeong Eun-kyeong. / Korea Times file |
By Jung Min-ho
The Bucheon city government is stepping up efforts to trace more than 250 people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 after finding out that a patient was with them at a nightclub earlier this month.
According to the city government and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) Monday, the man, an undocumented Vietnamese immigrant, 32, went to the "Merit Night Club" with friends on the night of May 9. After spending about an hour there, they visited a pub and a noraebang (karaoke club) nearby.
Before testing positive for COVID-19 on May 16, the man, who works in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, also visited "Queen" club in Seoul's Itaewon on May 1.
Infectious disease experts warn that clubs and noraebang facilities are highly risky because they are usually crowded and people do not wear masks there.
The patient is being treated at the Gyeonggi Province Medical Center Anseong Hospital.
"It has been difficult to communicate with him. He says he visited the nightclub on May 14 or 15. It's possible that it was earlier," said Park Young-joon, who leads efforts for epidemiological studies at KCDC.
Asked about cases linked to Itaewon. KCDC Director-General Jeong Eun-kyeong said the Korean patient, 29, who visited multiple clubs and bars from the night of May 1 to the early hours of May 2, was believed to have been infected in late April.
About 5,000 people were estimated to have visited the clubs and bars in question between April 24 and May 6. Jeong said the KCDC had so far tested about 65,000 people and remained vigilant over secondary and tertiary transmission of the virus.
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