It was reported that BTS’s Jungkook, NCT 127 star Jaehyun, Mingyu from SEVENTEEN, and Cha Eunwoo from ASTRO went on a night out in Itaewon on 25 April until the early hours of 26 April amid the coronavirus outbreak. Now, their agencies have apologized for the same. It was also confirmed that they have also been tested negative for coronavirus.
While addressing, Jungkook’s outing, Big Hit Entertainment issued a statement that said, “Hello.This is Big Hit Entertainment. Here is our official statement regarding BTS member Jungkook’s visit to the neighborhood of Itaewon in Seoul.
Last week, several news outlets reached out to us to ask about whether Jungkook had visited the neighborhood of Itaewon, and we sincerely apologize for belatedly realizing that the agency’s response to the questions were problematic.
It is true that Jungkook went to the neighborhood 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 neighborhood 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 neighborhood of Itaewon with his acquaintances. He showed no symptoms of COVID-19 such as coughing or a 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.” read the statement.
Jungkook, Mingyu and Cha Eunwoo frequently hang out together as part of a group of idols named the ’97-line’, as they were all born in 1997.
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