outbreak," and stated that, "uscirf has received reports of individuals encountering discrimination at work and spousal abuse because of their affiliation with the church." uscirf reported that south korean "vice minister of health kim kang-lip has publicly stated that the shincheonji church has cooperated with authorities." the belgian ngo human rights without frontiers and cesnur released a "white paper" claiming that, although it did make "mistakes" in its management of the crisis, shincheonji had also been discriminated because of its status as an unpopular group in south korea. on 17 march, around 79 church devotees were infected with the virus after attending the river of grace community church. the infections were claimed to have been caused by spraying salt-water into followers' mouths, under the belief that this would protect them from the virus. nearly 140 churches in gyeonggi province, which surrounds seoul and is part of the greater seoul area, will be closed if they do not implement preventive measures, including temperature checks, two-meter separation, and the wearing of masks. as more churches are holding services despite a government order for social distancing, on 30 march, the controversial manmin central church in guro, seoul became a cluster with 22 infections linked to a gathering in early march in which the group was preparing stock footage to use for online worship services. other church clusters have appears in the cities of suwon, busan, geochang, and bucheon. april as infection rates have risen outside korea leading to increases of sick arriving in the country (476 of 9,661 cases were imported as of 30 march), the kcdc will be implementing stronger infectious disease control measures for travelers coming from overseas as of 1 april. additionally, new self-quarantine measures for travelers coming from europe or the united states will be in effect from the same day. for example, those showing symptoms but test negative, and those who are without symptoms and are staying short-term in korea, need to quarantine for two weeks in a government provided facility. costs for the stay at the facility are the responsibility of the individual and total 100,000 won (us$81) per day. a few days later, a taiwanese woman was deported on 5 april for refusing to stay in a quarantine facility as she initially agreed and then later disagreed with paying for the cost of staying at the government designated facility, reportedly costing around 100,000 won per day. a total of 45 people are being investigated by the police for allegedly violating covid-19 self-isolation. under the revised anti-infectious disease law, violators can face up to a year in prison, a 10 million won fine, or in the case of foreign passport holders—deportation. seeing the infodemic on covid-19 information starting in china and spreading to korea and the us, fake news researcher cha meeyoung of kaist and the institute for basic science, along with researchers from ewha womans university, started the multilingual facts before rumors campaign to separate common claims seen online. a canadian cast member with the touring the phantom of the opera stage play entered korea on 12 march, participated for roughly two weeks, and tested positive 2 april. an american colleague tested positive on 4 april, which shut down production of the musical until 14 april while the venue could be disinfected and contacts of the staff, those staying in the same hotel, and over 8,000 people who recently attended were contacted by health authorities who told them to stay indoors and contact a testing centre if they develop symptoms. on 13 april, it was reported that at least 116 individuals who were infected and later cleared of the virus had again tested positive. the cause for this is under investigation but early speculation considered faulty tests, reactivation of the virus instead of re-infection, or remnants of the virus might remain yet not be harmful to the host or other individuals. the nation also stated their plans to send 600,000 testing kits to the united states and asked people to continue social distancing while hinting that a loosening of these regulations might come in the near future. by 17 april, the kcdc stated that it knew of 163 patients who were said to have recovered, but again tested positive. the exact cause was not known but they stated several possibilities. patient #31 continuously stayed in the hospital 58 days, as of 14 april. the single occupancy room she is in costs 400,000 krw per day (roughly us$360) with a total hospital bill thus far north of 40 million won (roughly us$36,000). while she is the longest hospitalized covid-19 patient in korea, 4.9% of those infected have stayed in a hospital for more than 50 days. additionally, another one thousand people have been quarantined for four weeks or more. after several days with new infections numbering in the single digits (18, 20, 22 april), the government announced it was going to start lifting restrictions starting with stores, restaurants, gyms, cram schools, bars, and religious services; which is notable as most of the nation's infections came from places of worship. in coming weeks, arboretums, forests and national parks will begin to open with social distancing still in place until at least early may. after seeing korea successfully lower cases of infection, president moon jae-in has engaged in "coronavirus diplomacy" with leaders of other nations, part of which involved exporting test kits to more than 20 countries. on 26 april, confirmed patient number 31 in daegu was discharged after 67 days. may–june number of cases (blue) and number of deaths (red) on a logarithmic scale, and number of deaths in the past ten days (dotted black) after a sustained period of new cases in the country numbering less than 20 a day, a new cluster emerged in central seoul. a 29-year-old patient from yongin was found to have visited at least five nightclubs in itaewon during the late night hours of 1 may and the early morning hours of 2 may. after having gone to other places in seoul and neighboring gyeonggi and gangwon provinces, he tested positive for covid-19 and was admitted to a hospital in suwon. his more than 1,300 contacts, several among them being difficult to identify and trace, were urged to self-isolate and have themselves tested for the virus. because of this incident, the seoul city government ordered all clubs, bars, room salons, and other nightlife establishments in the city to close indefinitely. as of 10 may, the number of cases in the cluster had increased to 54, and was expected to rise further because of the many potentially exposed individuals. on 11 may, there were 79 cases linked with the clubs in itaewon. as multiple media outlets identified at least one of the bars as a gay bar, the lgbt community in seoul feared an anti-gay backlash; social media users threatened to track and stop the "immoral acts" in some of the nightclubs. on 17 june 2020, reports surfaced of long-distance covid-19 transmission within a restaurant in jeonju, korea. in a five-minute window, one infected individual was reported to have infected two other individuals sitting at 6.5 m (21 ft) and 4.8 m (16 ft) away. an air conditioner in the restaurant was measured to have a maximum airflow of 1 m/s (3.3 ft/s) and 1.2 m/s (3.9 ft/s) between the individuals. the korea disease control and prevention agency opened an investigation using cctv footage and cell phone location data. persistent local groups of infections in the greater seoul area continued to be found in south korea, which led to kcdc director jeong eun-kyeong saying in june that the country had entered the second wave of infections. however, a who official disagreed with the assessment that the country was in a second wave. august 16 august saw the highest number of cases (297) since march. the sarang jeil church, led by reverend jeon kwang-hoon, has become a new centre of infections. the pastor has been accused of obstructing contact tracing and violating rules regarding self-isolation. thousands of people attended protests in central seoul on 15 august, raising new fears for infections. reverend jeon has accused the government of "pour(ing) the virus on the church." he appeared at the anti-government rallies on 15 august, which were attended by over 10,000 people. authorities ordered 12 high-risk business categories including nightclubs, karaoke bars and buffet restaurants, but also museums, to cease operations in seoul, incheon and the neighbouring gyeonggi province. furthermore, authorities banned indoor gatherings of more than 50 people, and outdoor ones of more than 100. september after new case numbers dropped, with closer to 100 cases per day, authorities eased some restrictions in the greater seoul area on 13 september, introducing new rules for a two-week period. the new rules allowed franchise cafes and bakeries to have customers drink and eat inside, dining at restaurants after 9 p.m., and indoors gyms and after-school academics to reopen. the requirement for these facilities to impose distancing rules such as having visitors sit at least one seat apart from each other or wear masks continued to be in place. october on 12 october, after new cases numbers dropped below 100 per day, authorities relaxed some more social distancing measures. november due to the infection rates climbing back to over nearly 300 a day, the government has increased the social distancing level to 1.5 m in the capital, to try to curb the coronavirus infections. due to this, high-risk areas like bars, clubs, and religious facilities are only allowed to accommodate up to 30 percent of their maximum capacity. schools are also limiting their population to two thirds, as a result. the government is urging students in study cafes, cram schools, and internet cafes to increase control measures, a result of the increase of the level. december since december, the rates have increased, as korea faces the third wave of covid-19 infections. the korea disease control and prevention agency said there were 1,132 new coronavirus cases on 25 december, not too far off the highest record of 1,241 logged on christmas eve. south korea has been struggling with a sudden spike in infections linked to hospitals, nursing homes, churches, prisons, and family gatherings during the holidays. on 27 december, the korea disease control and prevention agency confirmed that a new strain of covid entered the country through a family of three that travelled from the uk to south korea. 2021 president moon jae-in wearing a protective mask in march 2021 on 10 february 2021, south korea granted its first approval of a covid-19 vaccine to oxford–astrazeneca, allowing the two-shot regimen to be administered to all adults, including the elderly. the approval came with a warning, however, that consideration is needed when administering the vaccine to individuals over 65 years of age due to limited data from that demographic in clinical trials. on 14 april 2021, south korea reported 731 new confirmed cases, the most since january 2021, authorities anticipated a possible fourth wave. also additional 250,000 doses of pfizer/biontech vaccines arrived the country. by 22 april 2021, the country has 118,243 confirmed cases in total, with 1,812 deaths. on 19 july 2021, it is reported that 247 out of 301 crew members of the 34th contingent of the cheonghae unit on the munmu the great was tested positive for the covid-19. two korean air force kc-330 departed with 200 replacement members to transport the 301 entire crew members back to south korea. after returning to south korea, it was revealed that 270 crew members tested positive. 2022 on 24 january 2022, as the omicron variant spreads, south korea's daily new coronavirus infections reached 8,571, exceeding the previous high and fueling worries of another wave when tens of millions travel across the country for the upcoming lunar new year. in march, new infections totalled 10 million and deaths were 8,420. this reduced to 3.9 million in april, with 6,285 deaths recorded. public information the south korean government is providing citizens with information in korean, english, chinese, and japanese on how to not become infected and how to prevent spreading the disease. this includes information on cough etiquette, when and how to wear a face mask, and the importance of physical distancing and staying at home. the south korean government has also been sending daily emergency notifications detailing information