Chungha Reveals Her Sustaining “Trauma” From Her COVID Diagnosis

Soloist Chungha recently made her legendary comeback to music with “Eenie Meenie” featuring ATEEZ‘s Hongjoong.

As a part of her promotion schedule, the singer appeared on KBS CoolFM’s Lee Eun Ji’s Music Plaza to talk about her return to music and reflect on how she had spent the previous few years. During the interview, the singer brought up catching COVID in 2020, revealing how traumatized it left her.

Chungha was the first South Korean celebrity to be diagnosed with COVID-19 in December 2020. It was reported that she got in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient while attending the birthday party of idol-turned-actress Mina. Looking back at the scary time, Chungha said she “felt like a sinner” after her diagnosis.

She not only felt responsible during a time when everybody was scared of the disease, but the trauma of that diagnosis has lingered with Chungha. She said that due to that scary memory, she avoids going to crowded places even today. “To me, it remains sort of traumatic,” she added.

When the interview started circulating online, many netizens expressed sympathy toward Chungha, but some also brought up the fact that she got infected after attending a party during a time when the entire world was observing a lockdown.

• “But you attended a birthday party?”
• “Many people died because of the pandemic, and it’s still ongoing…”
• “The real problem was choosing to go to a birthday party at that time.”
• “People died at that time because of COVID-19…”
• “It was pretty scary back then.”

• “It was indeed scary then because so many people passed away.”
• “Back then, it wasn’t just a cold. People died. The virus only became like the common cold after it weakened over time.”
• “Why are you guys comparing it to how things are now? In the beginning, there were people who died, and the situation was crazy.”
• “Chungha, please.”