REUTERS
October 9, 2020 at 13:00 JST
SEOUL--A South Korean man accused of lying to authorities about his job and whereabouts during a coronavirus tracing probe was sentenced to six months in prison, Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday.
The legal case is the highest profile yet in the South Korean government’s aggressive efforts to track, trace, and quarantine suspected coronavirus cases.
The court in Incheon, just to the west of Seoul, said that the 24-year-old man impeded contact tracing by lying in at least 20 instances and “inflicted huge economic and social damage and caused fear among community members,” Yonhap reported.
The man was accused of not disclosing that he taught at a school in Incheon after he tested positive for the coronavirus in May, during a major outbreak centered in a number of nightclubs and bars in Seoul.
Prosecutors, who has asked for a two-year sentence, said infections in at least 80 other people were traced to the man.
According to Yonhap, the man apologized in court, saying he did not realize the serious repercussions of his actions.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 69 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Wednesday, raising the country’s total infections to 24,422 with 427 deaths.
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.