South Korea Considers Imposing Strict Restrictions to Curb Corona Spread

South Korea’s government announced today, Wednesday, that it is considering imposing more strict restrictions on private gatherings, and on working hours for multi-use facilities, to curb the continuing rise in Corona infections.

South Korean Prime Minister (PM) Kim Bo-kyeom said during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Control Headquarters that the government will consider imposing strict restrictions on private gatherings and working hours for multi-use facilities to curb the continuing rise in cases of infection and death from the emerging coronavirus.

He added that the government handles the epidemiological situation seriously, and plans to take strict social distancing measures.

It is expected to be announced on Friday and applied for the next two weeks.

The PM stated that if the measures are implemented, the government will develop an appropriate plan to compensate for the economic losses resulting from these measures for small business owners and self-employed workers.

South Korea recorded more than 7,000 new infections with the emerging coronavirus for the third consecutive day, at a time when the Prime Minister called for the start of providing booster doses of the vaccine to adult inpiduals.

The  S. Korean government decided to reduce the time interval between doses of the basic vaccination and the third dose for adults 18 years and over from 4-5 months to 3 months after receiving the basic vaccination, amid mounting concerns due to the increase in the number of corona infections.

Prime Minister Kim Bo-kyeom said, "Our medical response capacity is rapidly running out, with daily cases remaining in the range of 7,000 for the third day in a row, and the elderly aged 60 or over-representing 35% of the cases."

He stressed that the top priority is to accelerate the pace of vaccination and booster doses.

He also called for an increase in the frequency of adolescent vaccination, revealing that the authorities will start vaccination programs in schools from next week.