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| Sangju Mayor Kang Young-seok attaches a written order of a facility shutdown at the entrance of BTJ's center in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, Jan. 7. / Courtesy of Sangju City Government |
By Lee Hyo-jin
Concerns are rising over an infection cluster among followers of an evangelistic religious sect showing an uncooperative attitude to the government's antivirus efforts. The situation is reminding many of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus which was at the center of public criticism for not following state orders during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
The infection cluster is at the Back to Jerusalem (BTJ) center located in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province.
The center is the headquarters of InterCP International, a sect with some 1,400 missionaries dispatched to several countries. The facility is used to hold missionary training camps offering lessons on biblical and spiritual studies, according to its official website.
The missionary group was found to have conducted several training camps at the center from November to December last year, even when indoor gatherings of 50 people or more were banned while Level 2 social distancing measures were imposed in the region.
The health authorities estimated that a total of 2,797 people from across the country had participated in the camps from Nov. 27 to Dec. 27.
Among them, about 33 percent, or 924 people, have received COVID-19 tests as of Tuesday, out of which 126 were confirmed positive, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The health authorities found that 53 of the confirmed patients had already spread the virus to at least 450 people in other regions across the country through small-group religious gatherings and at other facilities of the sect, bringing the total cases linked to the center to 576.
Another 67 percent of the participants are allegedly refusing to get tested or denying having attended the camps, according to the health authorities.
Rev. Cho Mit-eum, the CEO of Bareun Media, a local news outlet reporting on religions and cults, viewed that the members are deliberately avoiding testing based on the false belief that the coronavirus has been spread by an anonymous organization with intentions to control the global population.
"Paul Choi, the sect leader, has been stating in his sermons that COVID-19 vaccines will manipulate DNA and turn people into slaves," he said in an interview with local radio CBS, Monday.
He warned that InterCP members may be even more uncooperative than Shincheonji followers. "Unlike Shincheonji followers who avoided testing out of fear that their identity would be revealed, their defiance is based on unreasonable beliefs," Cho said, calling for stronger measures of the government.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said, Tuesday, out of 283 visitors to the center with addresses in Seoul, 96 have refused to get tested or are out of contact. In Gyeonggi Province, 53 percent, or 461 people out of 857 visitors, have not been tested, according to the provincial government.
Local governments warned of legal action against those who fail to come forward to be tested.
Meanwhile, according to the KDCA, the country reported 537 daily new cases for Monday, including 508 local transmissions, bringing the total caseload to 69,651.
