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South Korea reports cluster infection case in Seoul, total tops 7,500

Mar 10 , 2020. 2 hours ago – 19:05 – KYODO NEWS

(Medical staff, wearing protective gear, move a patient infected with the coronavirus from an ambulance to a hospital on March 09, 2020 in Seoul, South Korea.)[Getty/Kyodo]

SEOUL – South Korean health authorities reported a cluster infection case that broke out at a call center in Seoul with 50 people testing positive for the new coronavirus, in what local media called the largest known case of its kind in the country’s capital.

Forty-six of them are workers at the call center in southeastern Seoul and the remaining four are family members, while 207 other people who work on the same floor are being tested, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry.

The ministry added that it will also check whether the latest cluster infection case has any relation with a religious group, Shincheonji Church of Jesus, to which most of the cases from the southeastern city of Deagu were linked.

Earlier on the day, South Korea reported 131 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 7,513, and three more deaths, raising the death toll to 54.

The vast majority of cases have been found in Daegu and surrounding North Gyeongsang Province, but clusters have also been reported elsewhere.

CR: KYODO NEWS