Oceans Minister Moon Seong-hyeok (center) attends a meeting to discuss measures for the fisheries industry to navigate the COVID-19 outbreak at the administrative city Sejong on March 9. (Yonhap)
Minster of Oceans and Fisheries Moon Seong-hyeok is working remotely in self-quarantine after coming into contact with a COVID-19 patient, the ministry said Tuesday.
Moon started working from home Monday and will do so for 14 days. He is the first Cabinet member to go into self-quarantine.
“Minister Moon was notified of the self-isolation from health authorities. He plans to work remotely from his residence until March 24,” said a ministry official.
Though Moon tested negative for the deadly contagion last week, he was asked to self-quarantine after it was confirmed that he had been in contact with a ministry staff member who had tested positive for the virus.
Moon is one of some 290 ministry officials who are in self-isolation or self-quarantine. The ministry reported 27 cases of COVID-19 last week, giving rise to concerns that it could become an infection cluster.
The Oceans Ministry said it would make a concerted effort to stop the further spread of the virus.
By Kim Bo-gyung (
lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)
