The leader of a shadowy South Korean cult will be investigated over some of the country's deaths caused by Covid-19, Reuters reported.
Source of mass infection in South Korea
The Shincheonji Church of Jesus has been the epicentre of South Korea's largest Covid-19 cluster, with the majority of infections stemming from a female worshipper widely known as Patient 31—who has since been dubbed a "super spreader".
Since Patient 31 has been tested positive in the southeastern city of Daegu, the number of confirmed cases in South Korea has jumped by several-fold.
The branch of the religious sect in Daegu was reported to have 240,000 congregants, all revere the organisation founded by one Lee Man-hee, a self-styled messiah figure. Of these, 9,000 revealed to have flu-like symptoms.
Health authorities said that they had obtained a list of 317,320 Shincheonji members and trainees, but local governments believe this list is not exhaustive, according to Reuters.
On Saturday (Feb. 29), over two weeks after Patient 31 was identified, some of the Shincheonji members were found to have travel history to Wuhan in January.
Photo from HWPL.KR
Investigation into founder and 12 other leaders
According to Reuters on Mar. 2, the Seoul metropolitan government announced that it had filed for a criminal complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, calling for an investigation into Lee and 12 other leaders from the church.
The investigation will look into charges of murder and violations of the Infectious Disease and Control Act.
The municipal government of Daegu also took legal action against Shincheonji Church for providing false information, according to Yonhap news agency.
The mayor of Seoul, Park Won Son, said that if the church had cooperated, effective preventive measures could have been implemented to save those who had died from the virus.
The complaint was reportedly received by the prosecutor's office and is being reviewed.
Public apology
One senior member of the church, Kim Shin-chang, told BBC that the church was "very sorry for causing concern" and admitted that some members were afraid of releasing their information.
However, Kim stated that the church has since revealed all its information and locations of its members, as they believed that "right now the most important thing is to fully cooperate with the government".
On Mar. 2, Lee also apologised to the public "as a representative of Shincheonji followers" and vowed to fully cooperate with the government, a day after the criminal complaint was made by the Seoul metropolitan government.
Spread of virus could be linked to church's stringent regimes
As of Mar. 2, South Korea records 26 fatalities from Covid-19, with the total number of infected rising to 4,212, Yonhap news agency reported.
Many have blamed the church for its secretive nature and cramped services for the disproportionately large number of cases linked to it.
It is possible that a number of its members might have reported signs of symptoms late as well.
The 61-year-old Patient 31 exhibited symptoms one week before she was diagnosed with Covid-19. She assumed that it was just common flu and attended church services twice before being tested positive.
Prior to that, she refused to take the tests for Covid-19, and slipped out of the hospital several times to attend church services.
One reason for her being so hell-bent on attending services is due to the strict regime in Shincheonji church—illness is not considered an excuse to skip services, and those that are too ill are required to make up for missed sessions on weekdays.
This could explain the easy transmission of the virus from the infected to other church members, especially in the confined and tightly packed spaces.
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Top photo from HWPL.KR and Shincheonji’s YouTube