At least five more Korean stars have tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to bring the total to 31 amid a surge of cases in South Korea.
South Korea recorded 17,542 new COVID-19 cases on Jan. 29, another record for the highest daily tally. There are now 811,122 confirmed cases in South Korea.
Korean actor Lee Sang-yoon, star of the Korean drama “One the Woman,” tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 29, according to his agency J-Wide Company.
Lee Sang-yoon is currently starring in the play “Freud’s Last Session,” which also stars “Squid Game” actor O Yeong-su.
The producer of the play announced that the scheduled performances on Jan. 29 to 31 have been canceled due to Lee Sang-yoon’s condition.
"For safe performance operation, we will pause the performance for a while and check the health status of the actors and staff once again, but we will inform you about the timing of the resumption of the performance and the performers at a later date,” it said.
His agency said before the play performance on Jan. 28, Lee Sang-yoon tested positive through the rapid antigen test and the PCR test confirmed that he has COVID-19.
Lee Sang-yoon is fully vaccinated and he has no symptoms and is being treated at home.
Before him, other Korean stars who tested positive are Oh My Girl’s Yubin, Viviz’s Umji (formerly of GFriend), Brave Girls’ Yuna and comedian Jo Se-ho.
From Jan. 19 to Jan. 29 including the five, there are at least 31 Korean stars who have tested positive for COVID-19 as the Omicron variant continues to spread. South Korea has 9,860 Omicron variant cases as of Jan. 24.
Those who have COVID-19 are The Boyz’s Hyunjae, Ju Haknyeon, Younghoon and Eric; Kep1er’s Kim Chae-hyun and Seo Young-eun; iKON’s Chanwoo, Kim Jinhwan, Song Yunheong, Kim Donghyuk and Koo Jun-hoe; Treasure’s Choi Hyun-suk, Junkyu, Mashiho and Yoshi; former IZ*ONE member Kwon Eun-bi; and Weeekly’s Jaehee.
Other K-pop idols who tested positive are WINNER’s Lee Seunghoon; former Sistar member Hyolyn; WEi members Kim Dong-han, Yoo Yong-ha and Kang Seok-hwa; Super Junior’s Eunhyuk; and EPEX’s A-Min, Wish and Jeff.