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Seoulites visit Children’s Grand Park on May 3 as people relax social distancing practices. (Yonhap News)

The South Korean government has decided to switch to “everyday disease prevention” in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 6. This decision is based on the government’s conclusion that it can’t indefinitely delay a return to everyday routines and economic activity, which have already been on pause for so long. Since no countries have managed to harmonize daily routines with a coronavirus response thus far, it remains to be seen whether South Korea will be able to keep the coronavirus from spreading even after everyday disease prevention goes into effect.

“On May 6, we will be ending social distancing and will be transitioning to everyday disease prevention, or in other words social distancing within our daily routines. That means opening the door for economic activity while empowering individuals to prevent the disease themselves. We need to create new routines that can keep COVID-19 from spreading,” said Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo in a press briefing on May 3. Park also serves as first vice director of South Korea’s Central Disaster Safety and Countermeasures Headquarters.

“Considering that experts in Korea and other countries predict that the COVID-19 pandemic could last for nearly two years, our society cannot be maintained any longer if daily routines and economic activity remain halted,” Park said. The government is planning to consider lowering its infectious disease alert to orange from the highest level, red, after monitoring the number of new cases following the long holiday at the beginning of May. Over the past two weeks, the number of new cases each day has fallen to around ten, with over 80% of those being identified by the country’s quarantine protocols. The public health authorities also say there hasn’t been a surge in new cases since the first national elections were held on Apr. 15 amid quarantine controls.

Seoul has decided to phase out administrative rules for high-risk facilities and public facilities by the end of May so that those facilities can reopen without the current distancing efforts disappearing all at once. National parks and other outdoor facilities where visitors can keep their distance reopened on Apr. 22, and museums and other indoor facilities where visitors can remain spread apart will be reopening on May 6. More crowded outdoor spaces, such as sports stadiums, and indoor spaces, such as theaters, concert halls, and welfare centers, will be opened up in several stages. While churches, gyms, nightlife establishments, and private academies can resume operations, they’re required to follow quarantine rules. They’re also subject to administrative guidance by local governments, which are recommending that they exercise restraint, even if they reopen.

Maintaining 2m distance in certain facilities, as much distance as possible on public transportation

On Sunday, the government also finalized its basic quarantine rules for individuals and groups and its detailed rules for various activities. Some sections of the first draft were eased, in light of practical considerations, to make it more likely that people will follow the rules. The first draft had stated that people who have a fever or other suspicious symptoms or who have been to another country within the past 14 days may not go to the office or visit public facilities, but in the final version, such people were only asked to exercise restraint. Considering that there are some facilities where physical distancing is not feasible, the section about maintaining 2m distance (or a minimum of 1m) in certain facilities was revised to keeping an empty seat between people at concert halls, movie theaters, baseball stadiums, football stadiums, and PC gaming centers and maintaining as much distance as possible on public transportation.

Jung Eun-kyeong, director of Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), offered an explanation for these revisions during the daily briefing on Sunday. Citizens canvassed about the guidelines had said that the hardest one to follow was staying at home for three or four days when sick. “We need to keep working on creating a culture and system in which people take a break when sick, and we need to find ways to prevent the virus from being transmitted through droplets and contact in enclosed spaces under our current conditions.”

One of the five rules for group disease control was made tougher. The original draft said that, when five or more people in a group show suspicious symptoms within four or five days, their quarantine manager is supposed to have them tested for COVID-19 and, if more suspicious cases occur, to inform the community health center of the possibility of an infection cluster. But the final version says that, if two or three people present suspicious symptoms within three or four days in a single department, class, or location where close contact occurs, they must be tested and the authorities notified if more suspicious cases appear.

The rules about mask usage were also partially revised. The latest version states that it’s helpful to wear cloth masks when medical or surgical masks aren’t available and that people can reuse a mask that they’ve used briefly in a location with little risk of contamination.

The government will also periodically adjust the degree of distancing (the three levels being everyday disease prevention, social distancing, and intense social distancing) depending on the risk of COVID-19. The criteria for maintaining the more relaxed approach are fewer than 50 new cases a day, less than 5% of cases with an unknown mode of transmission, and at least 80% of infected individuals being identified before they enter the general population. A final factor to consider is the size of infection clusters.

On Sunday, 13 new cases of COVID-19 were reported by the South Korean authorities.

By Choi Ha-yan and Kwon Ji-dam, staff reporters

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