South Korea’s President Moon said that the country is facing a new virus crisis and that it is much more severe than dealing with the controversial church cluster in its first wave.
“We are facing a new crisis. It’s a much more severe emergency than the Shincheonji situation in the early days of the Covid-19 crisis,” said Moon.
“Seoul and the metropolitan area have become the centers of spread, and nowhere else in the country is safe.”
If health officials were unable to curb the spread of the virus then the social distancing level will be raised to Alert Level 3 which would mean “daily life will be stopped, jobs will be collapsed and a huge economic blow should be endured,” warned Moon.
“Even the medical system could collapse,” the President said in a meeting with senior advisors in Seoul on Monday.
Moon said that the effort to stem the spread of the virus in South Korea is being hampered because “some in our society are challenging the nation’s disease prevention system and blatantly obstructing or refusing to cooperate the health effort.”
The latest outbreak in South Korea has been linked to churches in Seoul and the neighboring provinces. Members of religious groups have been criticized for withholding key information and obstructing public health authorities in their fight against the pandemic.
“We cannot tolerate individual transgressions such as non-cooperation in disease prevention or quarantine violation by refusing administrative orders. The damage to people is already too great. It has hurt the lives and health of many people, stopped their daily lives, and hurt the economy and employment,” Moon told his senior advisors.