Some members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus (SCJ) in Daegu had visited Wuhan in January 2020, according to Reuters.

SCJ has been accused of being a cult, while its founder has been described as a "self-styled messiah figure".

Shincheonji Church had a branch in Wuhan

The church has been linked to about half of the confirmed cases in South Korea.

On Sunday (Mar. 1), the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) confirmed that that the church also had a presence in Wuhan.

KCDC official, Kwon Jun-wook, said that some of the Shincheonji members in South Korea had travelled to Wuhan.

He added that it was unclear how many went there, and whether the trip played a part in the Covid-19 outbreak within the members of the church in Daegu.

42 members had gone to Wuhan in the past eight months

In an article by Korea Times, however, it was reported that 42 members had presumably visited Wuhan over the past eight months.

After checking the immigration records of around 245,000 Shincheonji members, South Korea's Ministry of Justice found that around 3,600 had arrived in South Korea from China between Jul. 1, 2019 and Feb. 27, 2020.

Among them, 42 had traveled to Wuhan.

Out of the 42, one is a foreign follower. The rest are South Korean nationals.

South Korea's Ministry of Justice added that the current statistics are only preliminary.

They are subjected to changes depending on further investigations.

Tests for Covid-19 will be conducted on all Shincheonji followers.

South Korean government waging all-out responses

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Sunday (Mar. 1) that the country was waging all-out responses to contain the rising spread of Covid-19, The Straits Times reports.

He added:

"The government is now waging all-out responses after raising the crisis alert to the highest level. We will be able to overcome the Covid-19 outbreak and revive our shrunken economy."

As of Mar. 1, South Korea has 3,736 reported cases, with 20 reported deaths.

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Top image by Bahruz Djafar on Flickr.