A South Korean church has been hit by the coronavirus after 46 members, including the pastor and his wife, tested positive for the virus.
Local reports indicate that they contracted the virus after an official failed to sanitize a saltwater spray bottle used to administer inside their mouths, believing it would help prevent the spread of the virus.
Surveillance footage from the River of Grace Community Church in Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul, shows a church official inserting the spray bottle deep into the mouth of each follower during a prayer gathering attended by approximately 100 followers on March 1 and March 8.
Lee Hee-young, co-chief of the Gyeonggi Province COVID-19 Emergency Response team, stated, “It’s been confirmed that they put the nozzle of the spray bottle inside the mouth of a follower who was later confirmed as a patient, before they did likewise for other followers as well, without disinfecting the sprayer. This made it inevitable for the virus to spread. They did so out of the false belief that saltwater kills the virus.”
Following the outbreak, the church has been closed, and all attendees of the prayer sessions are undergoing testing.
The pastor of the church, identified as Kim, has issued an apology for the mass infection of his members, expressing his intention to take full responsibility and retire once the crisis is resolved.
This incident follows a previous outbreak in South Korea, where over half of the 4,000 coronavirus cases were linked to the secretive church Shincheonji cult.
South Korea’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 74 new cases on Monday, bringing its total tally to 8,236.