Gyeonggi Province Churches: 2,635 Held In-Person Services Last Sunday

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] While online worship services have increased in response to Gyeonggi Province's request for religious facilities to refrain from gatherings, some churches have been found not adhering to infection prevention guidelines, with 27 churches conducting crowded in-person worship services.
According to Gyeonggi Province on the 16th, a field investigation conducted on the 15th mobilizing 3,095 provincial and municipal government officials found that among 6,578 churches in the province, 60% or 3,943 churches held video worship services and did not conduct in-person gatherings. This represents an 11.2 percentage point increase from the previous week.

The province conducted a full survey of infection prevention measures among churches holding in-person services, including ▲fever screening of participants ▲mask wearing ▲hand sanitizer provision ▲maintaining 2 meters or more distance ▲disinfection of facilities before and after gatherings. The province explained that while most churches are adhering to the guidelines well, some cases of non-compliance have occurred.

Specifically, the violations included ▲521 churches (19.8%) not using fever screening devices ▲138 churches (5.3%) with attendees not wearing masks ▲9 churches (0.3%) not providing hand sanitizer ▲27 churches (1%) not maintaining worship distance ▲80 churches (3%) not conducting disinfection.

Gyeonggi Province has found that 27 churches have not been maintaining distance and some churches are not complying with infection prevention guidelines. The province plans to cooperate with relevant municipal and county governments to recommend these churches adhere to infection prevention measures, and will consider restricting religious gatherings if compliance is not achieved.
Additionally, the province plans to continuously guide churches conducting in-person worship to split services in locations with limited space and to send home worshippers not wearing masks. The province also plans to identify support measures that can be provided by the province and municipal/county governments, as some churches have requested assistance in purchasing fever screening devices and disinfection supplies.

Meanwhile, as cluster infections have continued to occur primarily at churches in major cities, the province has decided to actively promote conversion from in-person to video worship services.
As of the 16th, 46 confirmed cases emerged overnight at the Seongnam Grace River Church, and multiple confirmed cases have occurred at the Bucheon Living Water Church (15 people) and Suwon Living Spring Church (10 people). A total of 71 confirmed cases have resulted from church cluster infections.

A provincial official stated, "We are grateful that most churches have cooperated with quarantine measures," and added, "As cluster infections continue to occur at religious facilities, thorough compliance with infection prevention guidelines is necessary."
According to Statistics Korea's 2018 Business Establishment Survey, there are 13,707 churches in Gyeonggi Province. The province is conducting quarantine management at 6,578 churches confirmed through municipal and county surveys.