SEOUL, Two defense ministry offices and four military entities have been given a disciplinary warning over the mass COVID-19 outbreak that infected 90 percent of South Korea’s anti-piracy naval unit operating in waters off Africa, the ministry said Wednesday.
All members of the 301-strong Cheonghae unit were airlifted home in July, with their mission cut short, after 247 troops tested positive for COVID-19. Subsequent tests found 25 more cases, raising the total caseload to 272, or 90 percent of the total members.
After an audit into the unprecedented incident, the ministry concluded that the mass outbreak was attributable not to “the wrongdoings of specific individuals, but that every organization involved shares responsibilities.”
The six rebuked entities are the international peace and health policy departments of the defense ministry; the overseas missions department of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS); the medical offices of the Navy and the Naval Operations Command; and the virus-hit 34th contingent of the Cheonghae unit.
According to the probe results, it was not immediately reported to the JCS chairman or the defense minister when Cheonghae unit members started to show cold symptoms, and the government also failed to make utmost efforts to vaccinate the members.
“We have demanded the organizations to come up with additional measures to prevent similar incidents from recurring,” ministry spokesman Boo Seung-chan said.
All members of the Cheonghae unit have fully recovered as of early August.
Source: Yonhap News Agency