South Korea decided, on Friday, to extend the current social distancing restrictions for two more weeks to curb the rise of Covid cases.
The government announced that the restrictions will remain till Feb. 20, during which private gatherings of more than six people will be banned and businesses are subject to a 9 p.m. curfew. It also decided to lower the age of eligibility for COVID-19 treatment pills from 60 to 50, starting from Monday.
Lee Ki-il, a senior health official, asserted that South Korea will endeavor to contain the upward trend without further tightening social distancing measures.
"Even if daily infections rise, we will attempt to gradually ease antivirus restrictions and return the country back to normal as long as we have sufficient medical capacity and the number of critically ill patients and deaths remain stable," he said during a regular press briefing.
On Friday, South Korea's daily virus cases hit another all-time high with infections exceeding 27,000 for the first time amid the fast spread of the omicron variant after the five-day Lunar New Year holiday.
The country reported 27,443 new COVID-19 infections, including 27,283 local cases, raising the total to 934,656, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The previous daily record was 22,907 reported Thursday.
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