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A banner criticizing churches that disobey disease prevention measures in the city of Daegu on Aug. 30. (Kim Il-woo)

“The actual culprit is the United Future Party [UFP], which gave Jeon Kwang-hoon a platform. 1,667 people on 49 buses from Daegu who violated disease control protocols at the Gwanghwamun rally were the biggest group that attended the rally from anywhere in the country,” says a banner at Hyomok Intersection, in Hyomok-1 neighborhood, in Daegu’s Dong (East) District.

That’s quite a rare sentiment to see in Daegu, a bastion of conservatism in South Korea. In an odd coincidence, if you walk about 500m past that sign in the direction of the Dongchon recreational area, you’ll come to the Daegu Church of Love, which has seen Daegu’s biggest cluster of COVID-19 infections since the outbreak at the city’s branch of the Shincheonji religious sect.

When I visited on the morning of Aug. 30, I found the door locked on the building that houses the Daegu Church of Love. There’s a notice on the door stating that meetings are banned at religious facilities in the city of Daegu. City workers showed up to display another notice, stating that the building was officially closed. Even the parking lot behind the building was vacant.

The Daegu Church of Love was renting the second floor of the five-story building. The building is lined by motels and restaurants.

Investigations by the authorities found that 46 of the 103 members of the church had gone to a huge rally in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square, on Aug. 15. The church disregarded the recommendation of the Daegu city government not to hold physical services: 88 churchgoers showed up for a service on Aug. 23 and 43 showed up for another service on Aug. 26. The result was that, on Aug. 28 and 29 alone, 34 members of the church tested positive for COVID-19.

Contact tracers in Daegu determined that 22 of the 34 infected church members had attended the Gwanghwamun rally on Aug. 15, Korea’s Liberation Day. Those cases included students at Daeryun Middle School and Daegu Girls’ High School, setting off a panic at those schools. The disease control authorities believe that some church members were infected at the Gwanghwamun rally and then spread the disease to other congregation members during in-person services.

The outbreak is terrible news for Dongchon Charcoal Garden, a barbecue restaurant in the area where church members often dined together. On Sunday afternoon, the restaurant was closed, and hardly anyone could be seen in the Dongchon recreational area, where the church and restaurant are located. A sanitation vehicle representing the Dong District was cruising around the neighborhood, belching out disinfectant in the form of white fog.

“I’d figured that Daegu would be safe [from COVID-19] now, but this is a big mess. If only people would just stop disobeying government disease control measures. I don’t know why they have to be so weird,” said an area resident surnamed Park, aged 57.

The Daegu Church of Love violated various disease control measures by holding in-person services and not keeping an accurate list of churchgoers, and the city of Daegu intends to file criminal charges against its pastor.

As of noon on Sunday, 53 people in Daegu alone (out of 369 people around the country) had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in connection with the Gwanghwamun rally. The city also had 12 cases connected with Sarang Jeil Church (out of 1,035 around the country) in Seoul.

At 11 pm on Aug. 29, anxious officials sent out an emergency mobile alert to residents, informing them that Sunday church services had been banned at all city churches.

Kwon Young-jin, mayor of Daegu and himself a Christian, sharply criticized the behavior of certain churches in a press briefing on Sunday morning. “The majority of churches and citizens are obeying the disease control measures despite the inconvenience. But as can be seen from the cluster of infections at Daegu Church of Love, a minority of churches and people who don’t follow the rules are driving community transmission and putting our entire city in jeopardy,” Kwon said.

The city recorded a total of 30 COVID-19 cases on Aug. 29, 29 of them members of the Daegu Church of Love. That’s the most cases the city’s seen in 152 days, since 60 were diagnosed on Mar. 30. The city’s biggest daily caseload was 741, on Feb. 28.

Following an emergency meeting with infectious disease experts on Sunday afternoon, city officials are looking into elevating the city’s social distancing regime to the level of the Seoul Capital Area (SCA).

By Kim Il-woo, Daegu correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]