The River of Grace Community Church in Seongnam has infected its own followers by sharing a saltwater spray bottle they sprayed inside their mouths which they believed would save them from having the virus.
According to the reports, it has been confirmed that the members who are responsible of spraying the saltwater to other followers have put the nozzle of the spray bottle to a person who has confirmed to be carrying the coronavirus and is a patient. They continued to use the bottle to other people without disinfecting it.
"This made it easier for the virus to jump on a new host. These people made themselves believe that saltwater could kill the virus," said Lee Hee-Young, the head of the coronavirus task force in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.
The event happened on March 1 to 8 during a prayer gathering attended by 100 followers. Due to this incident, reports have also confirmed that the pastor and his wife was infected as well.
The head of the River of Grace Community, pastor Kim have apologized for infecting all his followers and said "I will take all the blame and the responsibility." He ended his apologies with a pledge that he will retire after everything is over and settled down.
The authorities have restricted all gatherings in the church and closed it. The attendees who have participated in the prayer gathering are currently being tested if they acquire the virus infection.
These new cases of the coronavirus spreading to a number of people have urged the South Korean government to be vigilant and strictly monitor city areas that are possible to be having public gatherings. The government still managed to improve their work as the results show a gradual decrease in spreading infections.
As of now, South Korea confirmed 74 new cases of coronavirus infection on Monday, adding it to the recent number of people infected amounting to 8,236.
The Prime Minister Chung Sye Kyun held a press conference and said: "It is still too early to relax, we will not rest and will continue to concentrate our focus on preventing the spread of the virus especially strictly monitoring possible public gatherings that will cause possible transmission of the virus."
The Gyeonggi Province has a total of 14million people in the population and about three out five of the province's 6,758 churches have participated to the government's request to temporarily suspend public gatherings and just gold online prayer meetings for the meantime.
"We again call out to every active church out there to hold their public gatherings for the meantime to avoid the spread of the virus. We will also suggest using the internet for their prayer meetings," Lee said.
