The Incheon District Court has handed down a six-month jail sentence to a 24-year-old instructor at a cram school for lying to health authorities and causing a series of COVID-19 infections.

On Thursday, the court said the instructor lied about his job status back in May after testing positive and coming under investigation by authorities to trace the route of infection.

The court noted that he lied due to fear his sexual orientation would be revealed.

However, it claimed that he lied or omitted testimony more than 20 times over three interviews and this led to more than 80 people getting infected nationwide, with more than half being elementary, middle and high school students in Incheon.