Here is the data update for Thursday, 19-March.
Location | Cases | Deaths | Parishes |
Louisiana | 347 | 8 | 17 |
United States | 9514 | 141 | |
World | 222,642 | 9,106 | |
Italy | 31,506 | 2,978 | |
St Mary Parish | 0 | 0 |
Today we will take a look at South Korea and the story of the now infamous “Patient 31.” As a relatively small country, both in land mass and population, South Korea has led the world in limiting the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak. They did this through a huge testing campaign, tracking of all of those who had been in contact with anyone known to be infected, and strong self-isolation policies to prevent spread. It is the tracking of how many people each infected person came in contact with, which provides the answer to the question posed above: “How much damage can one person do?”
The first eleven cases in South Korea were traced back to having come in contact with between two and one hundred people. A lot of exposure and many of those contacted became future cases but nothing out of the ordinary. Then came Patients 12 and 14, a married couple who came in contact with 425 people. The first major community spread. Patient 16 would be in contact with 450 people themselves, becoming the largest spreader of the disease to that point. Patients 17-30 would only be in contact with between 10 and 40 people each before they were isolated.
Then came Patient 31, a 61-year-old woman, who was to become the focus of her own major outbreak. It is not known when the woman was infected. However, we do know that on 2-Jan, she visited the C-Club in Seoul, South Korea, a club purportedly tied to the Shincheonji church. Seoul, a city of just under 10 million is in the northern part of the country. The Shincheonji Church of Jesus is a secretive sect that believes the churches founder Lee Man-hee is the returned Jesus Christ and Lee is the only person who can interpret the secret metaphors of the Bible. It has over 300,00 followers in South Korea.
On 6-Feb, Patient 31 was involved in a motor vehicle accident in the southern city of Daegu after visiting a C-Club there. Daegu is a city of 2.5 million in the North Gyeongsang Province. On 7-Feb, Patient 31 was hospitalized in Saeronan Oriental Medicine Hospital in Daegu. The following day, she traveled home and collected personal belongings before returning to the hospital.
On 9-Feb, Patient 31 left Saeronan Hospital of her own accord and attended two hours of services at Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, before returning to the hospital. She began running a fever on 10-Feb. On 15-Feb, doctors strongly suggested that she be tested for the SAR CoV-2 virus. She refused, instead taking a taxi from the hospital to the Queen Vell Hotel, where she had lunch with a friend or friends then took at taxi back to the hospital. The next day, she was again advised to be tested for the coronavirus but refused and again traveled from the hospital to two hours of services at Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu. On leaving the services, she traveled to a local clinic where she was tested for SAR CoV-2, before returning to the hospital. At this point, she transferred to Daegu Medical Center where on 17-Feb she was notified she had tested positive, becoming Patient 31 in Korea.
In her wandering travels, Patient 31 came in contact with a known 1,160 persons and untold others. She brought the disease to two hospitals and a clinic, as well as Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu. In the following days, Daegu and the Shincheonji Church of Jesus there would become the nexus for the spread of Covid-19 in South Korea

The map above shows the impact one person had on the outbreak in South Korea. Daegu is the large blue circle in southern Korea. Seoul with five times the population is one of the small circles in the north. One person can clearly make a difference and have a huge impact on outbreaks. Patient 31 surely did!
Stay safe. Self-isolate and follow the directives of state, local and federal officials.