RESURGENCE OF COVID-19 AFTER CHUSEOK

[Anchor Lead]

The number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to surpass 100 yesterday, causing concerns that Chuseok might have been a super spreader event as everyone feared. A case in point is a family which all of its eight members who got infected after they went to their ancestors' graves over the Chuseok holiday.

[Pkg]

A family of eight in Daejeon tested positive for COVID-19 after visiting their ancestors' graves during the Chuseok holiday. A man in his 70s, who will be referred to as Mr. A, was the first to be confirmed of infection on Tuesday, followed by his son, daughter-in-law, daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren on Wednesday night. They were together during that Chuseok trip. On October 1st, Mr. A and his family went to the grave site in Yecheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province in two cars and even had lunch there before being confirmed of contracting COVID-19.

[Soundbite] (DAEJEON CITY OFFICIA(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "It takes a long time to travel from Daejeon to Yecheon. They also had meals together and spent the whole day together."

The infected son-in-law is a researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in Daejeon. The center closed down the building he works in, and disinfected the whole area. About 450 employees in the same building were instructed to work from home.

[Soundbite] PARK JONG-PAL(PUBLICITY OFFICIAL, ETRI) : "Employees of Building 7 were asked to work from home for one day. We will take additional measures as the situation develops."

The granddaughter who attends middle school was found to have attended class on Monday. Thirty-six students and teachers at the school are being tested for the virus. The Daejeon city government said Mr. A was infected after coming into contact with a woman in her 70s, the city's 366th COVID-19 patient. The investigation to find out who got infected first is still ongoing. Previously, Daejeon's 366th patient was tested positive on October 5th after dining with her relatives on September, 30th, the first day of the Chuseok holiday. Three among her 15 family members tested positive after that meal together. As infections among families occurred silently over the Chuseok weekend, authorities are conducting in-depth contact tracing to find out if they came into contact with more people.