The Seoul City government on Friday announced that it will monitor all the 8,578 people who watched “The Phantom of the Opera” at Blue Square in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

On Tuesday, a Canadian female ballet dancer of the show was confirmed with novel coronavirus infection and another American actor in the ensemble was tested positive on Thursday.

“We have the list of all the audiences and will send out text messages,” Na Baek-joo, director of Seoul City’s public health care management division said during a regular online briefing on Friday at 11 a.m.

Na added that the text messages will recommend social distancing and to get tested when they have symptoms of the virus.

According to Na, the infected Canadian entered Korea on March 12 and performed from March 14 to 30. She had symptoms since March 19 and went to get tested after not recovering on March 31, to test positive. Blue Square has been closed until April 14, and Somerset Palace Hotel in Seoul where the cast stayed has been disinfected and is no longer accepting new guests nor allowing anyone to move around.

“As of April 3, a total of 128 people have come in contact, with 71 foreigners participating in the performance and 57 Koreans who are actors and staff,” said Na during the briefing.

After this briefing, all 8,578 audience members received a text message with information regarding testing on Friday. “I found out about the government monitoring of audiences on news and around 5 p.m., I received the text from the Seoul government,” an audience of “The Phantom of the Opera” told The Korea Herald.

Meanwhile, the world tour production team of “The Phantom of the Opera” posted an apology on their social media page on Friday.

“We sincerely apologize for causing trouble to the audience and nearby community by not checking conditions of the actors and to the audience members who waited for a long to time who cannot see the show,” the post said.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)