Jungkook from BTS performed on stage for 102.7 KIIS FM Jingle Ball 2019 at the Forum on December 6, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Image of Rich Fury / Getty
South Korean boyband management BTS has apologized after one of the band members went to the bar while the country’s long-distance social rules were imposed.
BTS, which has seven members, is one of the biggest bands in the world – last year became first group in Billboard history spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Artist 100 chart.
Jungkook – who, at the age of 22, is the band’s youngest member – visited bars and restaurants in Seoul’s Itaewon nightlife district on April 25, the BTS label Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement on Monday.
At that time, South Korea was still under strict social rules, and citizens were encouraged to stay at home and limit unnecessary contact with others. The rules of social distance are lifted on May 6.
A total of 187 cases of the corona virus have been linked to the Itaewon nightclub cluster, Kwon Jun-wook, deputy director of the country’s Central Disease Control Central Office, said in a briefing on Tuesday. The first reported case as part of this cluster was a 29-year-old man who visited several clubs in Itaewon on the night of May 1 and early in the morning of May 2.
In the statement, Big Hit said that Jungkook left with his friends on April 25. But he did not go to places that had been visited by patients in early May, said Big Hit.
“After his visit, there were no symptoms of coronavirus including coughing or fever; and he voluntarily took a test at the designated clinic and the results were negative. The artist himself deeply regretted that he was not faithfully participating in the grand social trying to distance social,” the statement said.
