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People gather in Seoul’s Yeouido Han River Park on Mar. 22, despite the government’s advisory against large gatherings. (Lee Jeong-a, staff photographer)

The South Korean government has rolled out a tougher series of “social distancing” measures, set to take effect over the next two weeks, as it strongly recommends the temporary closure of religious, sports, and nightlife establishments. While the rate of increase in cases of COVID-19 remains stable for now, a third wave of transmission in the Greater Seoul region could cause the outbreak to rage out of control, as happened in Europe, the government fears.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announced the new measures in a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCHQ), held at the Central Government Complex in Seoul, on Mar. 22. “Today is the beginning of a 15-day period of robust social distancing measures. We are strongly recommending the closure of religious, sports, and nightlife establishments; facilities that must remain open are obliged to follow the quarantine guidelines outlined in the executive order issued by the Minister of Health and Welfare. There can be no more tolerance for behavior that obstructs the government’s quarantine measures or endangers the community,” Chung said.

The previous day, Chung released a statement about intensifying social distancing in which he strongly recommended the closure of establishments with a high risk of transmitting the virus, including those connected to religion, sports (martial arts academies and fitness centers), and nightlife (nightclubs and bars) for a period of 15 days, running from Mar. 22 to Apr. 5. Depending on circumstances in various parts of the country, these recommendations could be extended to ‘PC bangs’ (computer gaming cafés), karaoke rooms, and private academies. This is the first time the central government has issued an executive order under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act.

When such facilities have no choice but to remain open, their owners are required to abide by the rules laid out by the public health authorities. Those rules vary with the type of facility but generally include banning anyone with suspicious symptoms, ensuring that visitors stay one to two meters apart, requiring visitors to use masks, drawing up a list of visitors, and providing hand sanitizer at various places throughout the premises. Facilities that don’t abide by these rules will face an administrative ban on gatherings. A second violation can be punished by a fine of up to 3 million won (US$2,350), according to the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act.

If any COVID-19 cases result from such a violation, the government also plans to bill the business for damages, including the cost of hospitalization, treatment and quarantine. The government is also considering the option of demanding damages from individuals who become infected after visiting an establishment that has been labeled “high-risk” because it didn’t follow the quarantine rules.

These new guidelines appear to add some legal force to the “social distancing” that the government has been urging the public to follow voluntarily. While the number of new cases has fallen to about a hundred a day, the government is afraid that, if complacent citizens stop keeping their distance, the Greater Seoul area could see third-generation transmission, such as the massive outbreak in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, that could overwhelm the medical system.

By beefing up social distancing for two weeks, therefore, the government hopes to bring community-based transmission down to a level that the current quarantine system can handle. Based on that, the government intends to prepare for a drawn-out pandemic by creating legal and fiscal support and specific guidelines tailored to location and situation that can integrate disease control into people’s lifestyles and harmonize their routines with economic activity.

The government has also asked the public to postpone non-essential meetings, events and trips for the next 15 days and to refrain from leaving their homes except to buy necessary supplies, see the doctor or go to work during that period. “While these guidelines are a warning for business operators, it’s also important for citizens not to visit these facilities even if they are open,” said an official with South Korea’s Central Accident Response Headquarters.

So that the public sector can set a good example, special guidelines have also been issued for public servants, banning business trips, either domestically or internationally, and mandating that meetings and briefings be conducted via video or through email.

Kim Mo-ran, a professor of preventive medicine at the National Cancer Center, expects that these measures will be effective. “Nightlife establishments probably won’t be able to open because it would be difficult for them to record a list of customers’ names or to ensure that customers are maintaining the proper distance from each other,” she said.

But Eom Jung-sik, professor of infectious disease at Gachon University Gil Hospital, was more skeptical. “If we don’t get [meaningful] results by gradually intensifying [this kind of] social distancing, I think we’re going to have to take stronger measures, such as requiring closures or restricting movement.” Though the government announced on Sunday that it was implementing the toughest level of disease control on public transit, that’s not much different from the previous approach, which leaves space between passengers on forms of transit with assigned seating, such as KTX.

In the end, the details of the government’s financial support package are likely to be key for raising these measures’ effectiveness. “The secondary damage for small business owners resulting from social distancing needs to be compensated by the government. There’s an urgent need for a social consensus about the extent to which this burden can be shared,” said Kim Hong-bin, a professor of infectious disease at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The government said it’s currently drawing up a plan for the self-employed who will be damaged by the administrative order.

By Park Su-ji, Park Hyun-jung, and Noh Ji-won, staff reporters

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