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Medical personnel at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital clear the seventh floor of its ward to exclusively treat novel coronavirus patients on Mar. 4. (Yonhap News)

Over 3,000 out of 10,914 members of the Shincheonji religious sect in Daegu have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.

Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin announced the figure in a regular briefing on the virus situation at Daegu City Hall on the morning of Mar. 4.

“Among the 10,914 Shincheonji members currently being administered by the city of Daegu, 77.5% have been tested, and 3,394 of the 6,540 people who’ve been notified of the test results have tested positive,” he said.

People get tested for the novel coronavirus at a drive-thru screening center at Yeungnam University Hospital in Daegu on Feb. 27. (Yonhap News)  

He went on to note that the “positive testing rate for asymptomatic members has been continually dropping.”

Kwon also said that whereabouts had been confirmed for 20 out of 24 Shincheonji members who had been unaccounted for. The city of Daegu has issued self-quarantine notifications to the members in question. Currently, the number of Shincheonji members in Daegu who have yet to be contacted stands at four. Police are currently working to establish their whereabouts.

As of Mar. 5, the city of Daegu had performed a total of 27,509 coronavirus tests, with 8,458 of them (30.7%) performed on Shincheonji members. Samples for a total of 3,300 tests were taken in Daegu over the course of Mar. 4.

By Kim Il-woo, Daegu correspondent

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