South Korea has a population of 5 crore with 24.7 lakh in the city of Daegu, which is facing an “unprecedented crisis” after coronavirus infections that centered on the “cult” church surged to 38 cases, out of country’s total of 104.

The city, which is two hours south of the capital Seoul, was turned into a ghost town after health officials said the bulk of country’s 31 new cases announced on Thursday were associated with one of the branches of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

About 1,000 members attended worship at the church. Overall, 1,001 members of the church have been asked to self-isolate in order to contain the spread of the virus.

The Diamond Princess has shown us that 21% get infected if people stay together.

Super-Spreader

South Korea CDC has described an outbreak of coronavirus infections linked to a church in Daegu as a "super-spreading event".

WHO says "super-spreading" is not a technical term. However, incidents of transmission are possible where a large number of people can become infected from a common source.

The term "super-spreader" signifies that a person may have an inherent ability, more than others, to pass on the disease; however, virus experts stated that there is no evidence to suggest that is the case.

The spread of a virus like the new coronavirus is dependent on several environmental and epidemiological factors that result in transmission in individual cases or clusters. These include the patients and the stage of disease they are in, their behavior, their environment, and the amount of time spent in that environment.

The WHO has described the South Korea outbreak as a "cluster" of cases and not super-spreading. [Excerpts from NYT]

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA