COVID-19 Has Now Even Affected K-Pop Stars With 5 Stars Tested Positive for the Virus So Far

By
Shawn Ambrose
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Take a look:

Image: Worldometers

Now, if this were a graph tallying the number of cups of bubble tea you drank every day for the last few months, it would be slightly concerning, but nothing unusual for the average Singaporean.

In reality, it shows the number of active Covid-19 cases in South Korea.

Image: Worldometers

After having controlled the virus with invasive contact tracing, testing, and quarantine, South Korea is now facing its biggest wave of the coronavirus so far.

682 new infections were reported on Thursday (10 Dec), the country’s highest daily tally since 3 March, when everyone was mad at the Shincheonji Church.

And because the coronavirus doesn’t discriminate, the country’s top celebrities are also getting infected.

COVID-19 Has Now Even Affected K-Pop Stars With 5 Stars Tested Positive for the Virus So Far

Five K-pop stars have tested positive for Covid-19, and there are worries that more artists could get infected in the tight-knit entertainment industry.

At the moment, soloist Chung Ha, two members of Everglow, and two members of Up10tion are the only K-pop stars who have contracted the virus.

However, they have been in close contact with many of their counterparts, which has sparked concerns of a cluster within the industry.

Even though many artists have tested negative after coming into contact with these five stars or others with Covid-19, they have chosen to cancel appearances and performances, and adhere to the 14-day self-isolation period as a precaution.

The biggest potential super spreader to date was reportedly the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards (Mama), which was held on Sunday (6 Dec).

At least one artist who attended the event, Sana from the girl group Twice, had contact with Chung Ha before the event.

She is now in quarantine. All members of Twice have tested negative for the virus.

As for Chung Ha, she’s been forced to push back the release of her album Querencia in January and this week’s release of her single X .

There are also concerns that specialists who work with these stars, such as stylists, could spread the disease around the industry, as they often work with more than one artist at a time.

Military Mobilised to Combat Outbreak

Meanwhile, South Korea will mobilise military forces in the capital Seoul – where the majority of infections have been reported – to help frontline health workers deal with the alarming surge in infections.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said he will dispatch around 800 military, police and government workers in every district of the greater Seoul area to aid contact tracing efforts.

The authorities are also scrambling to build shipping container hospital beds, as the resurgence of the virus has sparked worries about a shortage of hospital beds.

The country has already signed deals with pharmaceutical companies to provide coronavirus vaccines for 44 million people next year.

Whether the vaccine will come in time before hospitals are completely overwhelmed, however, remains to be seen.

At the time of writing, South Korea has a total of 40,786 Covid-19 cases, and 572 deaths.

Meanwhile, their neighbours across the heavily militarised border have magically managed to evade the grasp of the virus, with a reported zero cases.

Featured Image: Randy Miramontez / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]