Unlike other countries where only patients showing symptoms have been tested, we chose to test everyone who has been in close contact with confirmed cases. Rather than waiting for patients to come in, we pursued and tracked down possible patients to prevent spread within the community.

During this process, our health authorities found a rapid community transmission taking place among members of the Shincheonji Church. This is a result of exhaustive epidemiological analysis and has nothing to do with prejudice or politics.

Our transparent catchall approach, supported by our outstanding diagnostic capacity, has paradoxically flagged Korea as one of the most affected countries. As of March 11, Korea has 7,755 confirmed cases of Covid-19. But this is the result of having tested 214,640 cases. It is also the main factor behind our low mortality rate of 0.77 percent, which is far below the 3.4 percent global average.