BTS' management releases statement on Jungkook's presence near Coronavirus-hit Itaewon

BTS’ Jeon Jungkook was confirmed to be at the location of South Korea’s wave two of the coronavirus outbreak. The main vocalist and the junior-most member of the K-pop juggernauts, BTS’, Jeon Jungkook went to a restaurant and then a pub in Itaewon with three of his friends from other K-pop bands namely Cha Eun Woo of Astro, Cha Ming Kyu of Seventeen and Jaehyun of NCT. The K-pop idols who are friends in real life have all tested negative for the novel coronavirus and out of them all Jeon Jungkook and Mingyu have not attended any social events so far.

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BTS Jeon Jungkook in close proximity to Itaewon where wave two of coronavirus pandemic hit South Korea 

BTS’ Jeon Jungkook’s representative management company, BigHit have released an official statement over the same. In the letter, they spoke on behalf of the singer as shared in a press release. The statement read, “This is Big Hit Entertainment. Here is our official statement regarding BTS member Jungkook’s visit to the neighbourhood of Itaewon in Seoul. Last week, several news outlets reached out to us to ask about whether Jungkook had visited the neighbourhood of Itaewon, and we sincerely apologize for belatedly realizing that the agency’s response to the questions was problematic.

It is true that Jungkook went to the neighbourhood of Itaewon. However, at the time, he did not go to the place that became a problem due to the confirmed case in early May, and Jungkook was in Itaewon a week prior to the first confirmed case (first case related to the chain of infections in the neighbourhood of Itaewon). Moreover, to abide by the government’s guidelines, Jungkook took measures such as receiving a test for COVID-19, so we deemed it inappropriate to reveal our artist’s private life to the public.

However, there is no room for excuse regarding the fact that we, as the agency of the artist in question, had not properly recognized the heavy importance of social distancing and prioritized the protection of the artist’s private life over it. We bow our heads to everyone in apology. On the evening of April 25, Saturday, Jungkook visited a restaurant and bar in the neighbourhood of Itaewon with his acquaintances. He showed no symptoms of COVID-19 such as coughing or fever following the visit. He voluntarily received a test for COVID-19 at a government-designated hospital and tested negative. The artist himself is currently feeling deeply regretful for not having faithfully contributed to the entire society’s social distancing efforts.

We at Big Hit are doing our best to follow social distancing protocols as well as other guidelines and prevention methods for COVID-19. We will follow [the guidelines] more thoroughly to ensure that such things do not happen again. We apologize for causing concern to many people including fans.”

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Several Army-BTS fandom took to twitter and started trending #iloveyoujungkook. Fans were protective of the K-pop idol in most of the tweets. The patient zero in the reported incident was traced to one of the close proximities to one of the pubs the K-pop idols visited on April 25, 2020.

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