Stigma inhibits South Korean attempts to trace bar contacts

Authorities in South Korea, which had been successful in containing the coronavirus early on due to its aggressive testing programme, began trying to trace more than 5,500 people who visited a group of bars between April 2  and May 6 because a single infected customer led to a new outbreak. More than 3,000, some of them for fear of being stigmatised as gay, remained out of reach while the number of cases rose to 101. Gay people have little protection in South Korea, and the news of the outbreak saw a rise in anti-gay comments on Seoul-based King Club's Facebook page; to protect themselves, gay customers may also have paid in cash, making them hard to trace via financial transactions.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-11/gay-club-outbreak-poses-challenge-to-korea-s-open-virus-strategy
Writer: Kanga Kong and Jihye Lee
Publication: Bloomberg