March 3,2009 Foreign media say seoul government in south korea has called for an investigation into suspected mulder, the leader of the "xintiandi church" linked to south korea`s deadly new coronavirus epidemic, and said the sect is responsible for refusing to cooperate with the epidemic prevention and control.
South Korean soldiers disinfecting
March 2(Reuters)- Seoul`s mayor, Park Won-sung, said effective preventive measures could have saved the lives of those who later died of a new coronavirus if the church`s founder and leader, Lee Wan-hee, and other church leaders had cooperated.
Seoul city government said in a statement that it had filed a criminal lawsuit against the central seoul district prosecutor`s office for an investigation into the alleged mulder and violation of the disease prevention and control law by lee wan-hee and 12 others.
On February 18, South Korean health officials identified a 61-year-old woman from the Church of the New World as the 31st case of a new HIV infection in South Korea, the website The Wall Street Journal reported. She was then declared the "zero patient" of the new coronavirus epidemic linked to the Church of Xintiandi. As of March 1, about three-fifths of the 3,736 confirmed cases in South Korea had been linked to her.
The woman was reported to have participated in the Xintiandi Church on February 16 with symptoms of sore throat and fever. She was there for almost two hours. She sat on the floor next to the shoulders of about 1,000 other people. According to the church`s routine, she has to hug people repeatedly.
"It looks like they`ve spread the virus inside the church," said an official in Daegu city government. "There are about 2.4 million residents in Daegu.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the outbreak caused by the "Church of the New World" is one of the worst cases, bringing together factors that exist in the outbreak of other new coronaviruses - large numbers of people have gathered, participants have dispersed to public places, delays in identifying threat, slow or blocked responses.
