A South Korean church had a practice of placing saltwater spray in the mouths of their followers, believing that this will keep them safe from the coronavirus. However, this resulted in 46 infections when used repeatedly without disinfecting the nozzle.
The basis of the evidence, are video captures from the River of Grace Community Church in Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul. One worshiper was getting a spritz from a church leader and it was also sprayed the other people. Said video was recorded during this prayer gathering with 100 followers on March 1 and 8. Among those who got infected were the congregations' pastor and his wife.
According to Lee Hee-young, head of Gyeonggi Province's coronavirus task force,"It's been confirmed that they put the nozzle of the spray bottle inside the mouth of a follower who was later confirmed as a patient, before they did likewise for other followers as well, without disinfecting the sprayer."
He added that it allowed the virus to spread further, and it was because they thought the saltwater kills the virus, which is false.
This church at South Korea is now a cluster of more positive cases, as the COVID-19 infected the others in the church.
Closure of the church was ordered while all its followers are now under testing if they are carriers of the coronavirus. Once positive, they need to be quarantined.
Cases like this have made the South Korean government more watchful to detect more new virus clusters in city limits that might add more infected people, as the infection rate has been contained to lessen chances of spreading the virus.
An additional number of 74 cases on Monday adds to the total number of cases at 8,236. The added cases were lower than 100 on Monday. More patients are released from hospitals on Sunday, manifesting that there are more individuals are recovering from COVID-19 than new cases that are detected as positive.
Chung commented that South Korea will widen the quarantine measures for those coming from Europe, especially Italy, without delay.
They implemented strict cancellation and suspension by authorities of all mass gatherings, religious services and events, as part of 'social distancing' to stave off further transmissions of the coronavirus.
This is part of the directives of WHO to work harder and get a significant decrease of the virus and monitor serious cases.
Data reveals that the Gyeonggi Province has 14 million people, and three out of five churches have registered compliance from province officials that there are no more gatherings, and they are holding online services instead.
More directives urge churches that still hold physical services to check the temperature of their followers at entry, wear face masks and keep a safe distance from each other.
Unfortunately, more than a few have ignored these directives and requests since more clusters of infections from church-goers are on the rise.
There are many confirmed cases from the River of Grace Community Church, wherein confirmed cases from Gyeonggi Province is at 25, with 15 positives from Bucheon City, and 10 at a church in Suwon City.
Lee Hee-Young appealed and asked for compliance in changing modes of worship to avoid the spread of the virus, via saltwater spray or other ceremonies in South Korea.
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