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. 2021:43:e2021024.
doi: 10.4178/epih.e2021024. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Epidemiological characteristics of a COVID-19 outbreak caused by religious activities in Daegu, Korea

Jong-Yeon Kim  1 , Yu-Mi Lee  2 , Hwajin Lee  2 , Jung-Whan Kim  2 , Shin-Woo Kim  3
Affiliations

Epidemiological characteristics of a COVID-19 outbreak caused by religious activities in Daegu, Korea

Jong-Yeon Kim et al. Epidemiol Health. 2021.

Abstract

Objectives: A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak triggered by religious activities occurred in Daegu, Korea in February 2020. This outbreak spread rapidly to the community through high-risk groups. This study describes the characteristics of COVID-19 cases based on S religious group membership and summarizes the Daegu municipal government's processes and responses to control the outbreak.

Methods: The epidemiological characteristics of confirmed cases were obtained through basic and in-depth epidemiological surveys. General characteristics, the proportion of asymptomatic cases, the case-fatality rate, and the time-to-event within each group were presented after stratifying confirmed cases according to S religious group membership.

Results: Overall, 7,008 COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Daegu from February 18, 2020 to June 30, 2020, and 61.5% (n= 4,309) were S religious group members. Compared with non-members, members had a higher proportion of female (p< 0.001) and younger age (p< 0.001), as well as lower disease prevalence. At the time of the investigation, 38.4% of cases in members were asymptomatic versus 23.7% of cases in non-members (p< 0.001). The case-fatality rate of non-members aged ≥ 60 years was significantly higher than that of members (p< 0.001). Compared with non-members, members had longer intervals from symptom onset to diagnosis (p< 0.001) and from diagnosis to admission (p< 0.001), and a shorter interval from admission to discharge (p< 0.001).

Conclusions: The epidemiological features of S religious group members, including the proportion of asymptomatic cases, case-fatality rate, and time-to-event, differed from non-members. The Daegu authorities prevented further COVID-19 spread through immediate isolation and active screening tests of all S religious group members.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Disease outbreaks; Epidemiologic surveillance; Korea; Religion.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare for this study

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Epidemic curve of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Daegu, Korea, 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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