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South Korean Religious Commune Shut Down After It’s Tied to 210 COVID Cases

The religious facility in the city of Cheonan was ordered closed after nearly half of its 427 residents tested positive for the virus.

A religious community near the South Korean city of Cheonan has been ordered closed after 210 of its 427 residents came down with COVID this week, the New York Times reports. At least 91 of the positive cases were in people who had not been vaccinated, according to the local infectious disease center in South Chungcheong Province. The religious group at the center of the outbreak has not yet been named. The closure comes months after the Shincheonji Church of Jesus made headlines after it was linked to more than 5,000 cases early on in the pandemic. That church, which is referred to locally as a cult, is still accused of trying to stop people from getting vaccinated. Overall, South Korea’s fourth wave of the pandemic has been manageable, local health experts say. “The situation itself is not so bad nationwide,” Kwon Jun-wook, deputy chief at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and director of the Korea National Institute of Health, said, adding there would be no new restrictions or changes to the country’s phased reopening.