Health authorities are on high alert over a mass infection of novel coronavirus that has emerged among employees of an insurance call center in the South Korean capital.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon told a local radio station on Wednesday that so far 90 people, including call center workers and some of their family members, have tested positive for the virus, marking the largest cluster in the city.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned more cases could be confirmed as they were screening over 500 additional employees.
The call center is located in Seoul's southwestern Guro District, in the Sindorim area, and many of its employees are know to have commuted to to work from Incheon and cities in Gyeonggi Province.
In response to the latest outbreak, regional governments nationwide are rushing to check all insurance, telecom, and other call centers to see if they are at similar risk.
Around 80 percent of coronavirus cases in the country are classified as cluster infections, most of which come from members of the Shincheonji religious sect based in Daegu, with the remaining 20 percent either considered as sporadic infections or cases that have yet to be determined.■
<Photo: Yonhap News>
