Main opposition lawmaker tests positive for COVID-19

A sitting lawmaker affiliated with the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, party officials said.

Rep. Jeong Jeom-sig based in the southern coastal city of Tongyeong was confirmed to have contracted the new coronavirus after attending a meeting last week with a journalist who tested positive for the virus, PPP floor leader Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon said.

"Jeong attended a meeting of (PPP) lawmakers representing South Gyeongsang Province last Thursday, and a journalist who attended the same meeting was later found to be a COVID-19 patient," Kim said during a meeting of the party's floor leadership.

Some of the other PPP lawmakers who attended the meeting have tested negative so far, he said, calling for preemptive self-quarantine measures for PPP members who came in contact with Jeong through various routes.

Jeong is the first PPP lawmaker who has tested positive for COVID-19. Two lawmakers affiliated with the ruling Democratic Party tested positive in April and June, as the first sitting lawmakers to do so since the first COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea early last year.

According to party officials, the meeting in question was held over lunch at a dining hall of the National Assembly and was attended by most of the party's 13 lawmakers representing South Gyeongsang Province, as well as journalists.

Rep. Cho Hae-jin based in the province's Miryang City, who attended the meeting as well, said the result of a relevant epidemiological survey is expected to be released later in the day, according to which, he said, related lawmakers will go under self-quarantine. (Yonhap)