Virus housing cluster highlights secretive South Korea sect

Behind a closed metal gate and a sign barring entry to outsiders, dozens of religious sect members are quarantined in a social housing complex in Daegu, the epicentre of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak.

Painted in faded pastel tones and reserved for young, poor women, the development has seen nearly a third of its 142 residents test positive for the virus.

Each patient is a member of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious group linked to most of the South's cases.

Shincheonji members make up around two-thirds of the total inhabitants, city authorities say, but for a time quarantine was imposed on everyone there, regardless of status or affiliation.

That made the concrete five-storey buildings the only ones in the South to have been entirely restricted.

The coronavirus patients from the "Hanmaeum" complex have been moved to medical facilities but 30 people -- all but three of them Shincheonji members -- remain in isolation in their apartments.

"It has been weeks now with no clear end in sight, though I have tested negative for the virus," said one. "I wake up in the morning and spend hours reading books and studying."
"It is even difficult to open my windows now because of drones flown by reporters to take photos. I wish there was clearer official information on when this will be over."
"Then I found Shincheonji," she said. "I pray for about one hour on average a day. I pray at every meal and when I feel distressed. It's about an hour altogether."
"With a mounting sense of insecurity, many find it all but impossible to avoid falling victims to a con job."