South Korea managed to avoid a major COVID-19 outbreak with only 30 people contracting the virus initially. This changed with the emergence of “Patient 31”. The patient who has been reffered to as Patient 31 is responsible for 80% of the cases in the entire country.
According to Reuters, it is not known where the patient got infected, but she later traveled to places such as churches, restaurants, and hotels.
With the aid of this patient, South Korea’s total numbers of confirmed cases rose much higher than anywhere else outside of China.
Meanwhile, over 9,300 people attended church with the same patient, with over a thousand reported to have flu-symptons.
“The coronavirus is more contagious and spreads quickly during the early stage of the outbreak, and therefore preemptive measures are needed considering a possibility that the virus could develop to a nationwide spread from a community spread,” Korean health minister Park Neung-hoo told a news conference.
“We believe the next week to 10 days will be crucial to determining how far the coronavirus spreads.”
