South Korea will drop guidelines that require individuals to put on masks in most indoor areas, authorities stated Friday, ending one of many nation’s final main pandemic restrictions as COVID-19 circumstances dwindle.
From January 30, it is going to now not be necessary to put on face masks in most indoor areas, besides on public transport and in medical services.
The masks mandate has been in place since October 2020, and is one in every of South Korea’s final remaining pandemic-era restrictions, with different guidelines from business curfews to social distancing lengthy dropped.
The nation nonetheless makes it necessary for many who get formally identified with COVID-19 to isolate themselves for seven days.
“The adjustments on the mandatory indoor mask mandate will be implemented from Monday, January 30th, after the Lunar New Year holiday,” stated Jee Young-mee, the pinnacle of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo stated the plan was to vary the indoor masks mandate from “required to recommended,” he instructed a authorities COVID-19 response assembly.
He stated the choice had been made in view of the nation’s strong medical response capabilities, the decreased variety of crucial circumstances and deaths from the coronavirus, and a downward development in new infections.
“External risk factors were also judged to be sufficiently manageable,” he stated, in an obvious reference to Seoul’s response to the latest surge in circumstances in China.
Seoul earlier this month applied a bunch of latest guidelines for guests from China, together with visa restrictions and testing necessities.
China final week suspended issuing short-term visas to South Koreans, in obvious retaliation for restrictions imposed on Chinese vacationers over outbreak issues.
Almost 30 million South Koreans have been contaminated with COVID-19, and greater than 33,000 have died, in accordance with official knowledge.
The nation was hit by one of many worst early outbreaks of the illness exterior China, the place the coronavirus was first detected.
Its early response to the pandemic — which concerned mass testing and aggressive contact tracing whereas by no means imposing a obligatory lockdown — was praised as a mannequin for holding the pandemic on the time. — Agence France-Presse
