Forty-three patients at Asan Medical Center in Seoul who came into contact with a young girl with the novel coronavirus have been placed under quarantine as a group for testing.
The patients are receiving treatment at the hospital for other conditions.
Jung Eun-kyeong, head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said medical staff and parents who came into contact with the girl are also in self-isolation.
The nine-year-old girl tested positive for COVID-19 at the hospital on Tuesday after initial results came back negative.
She was tested repeatedly as she was previously treated at Uijeongbu St. Mary's Hospital in Gyeonggi that later became a new cluster of infections.
Meanwhile, some 500 people who came in direct or indirect contact with girl have all tested negative for the virus.
The Seoul hospital's children's emergency center, several other facilities and dozens of wards have been shut down indefinitely.■
<Photo: Yonhap News>
