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Bathers hang out at Sokcho beach in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, on June 20. (Yonhap News)

As the Delta variant of COVID-19 quickly spreads around the world, less than 10% of South Korea’s population has been fully vaccinated. That raises concerns that going ahead with a plan to ease social distancing rules in July could cause a surge of Delta infections in Korea.

Experts who view July as a make-or-break month say that even if the government eases restrictions on restaurants and cafés, it should tighten personal hygiene guidelines by walking back a plan to ease rules on outdoor mask usage.

The government team in charge of fighting COVID-19 said that a total of 4,521,785 people had been fully vaccinated through Thursday, representing 8.8% of the South Korean population.

More than 15 million people — including many older adults aged 60 and above — have received their first vaccine dose, amounting to 29.6% of the population. But in effect, less than 10% of the population has the full vaccination needed to protect against the Delta variant, which was first identified in India.

Public Health England has reported that two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are fairly effective at preventing infection with Delta, giving Pfizer a 87.9% effectiveness and AstraZeneca 59.8%. But prevention is much lower for those who’ve only received a single dose (Pfizer: 33.2%, AstraZeneca: 32.9%).

Even with Alpha, the variant that’s currently most common in Korea, the preventive efficacy of a single vaccine dose is just 49.2% for Pfizer and 51.4% for AstraZeneca.

The South Korean government has relaxed disease control regulations so that people outside only need to wear masks when they can’t stay 2 meters away from others. Starting next month, those who have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine can take off their masks outdoors without maintaining distance from other people.

The revised social distancing rules set to take effect in July also greatly ease restrictions on private meetings and business operations. The cap on private meetings in the greater Seoul area will rise from four to six, while closing time for restaurants and cafés is extended from 10 pm to midnight. Outside of the Seoul area, the restriction on private meetings could disappear altogether or could be relaxed in stages.

“We’ll provide a detailed explanation on June 27 about the social distancing regulations for each region that will go into effect on July 1. However, a number of local governments could decide [on the final rules] after watching developments for a few days after June 27,” said Son Young-rae, the director of strategy and planning at Korea’s Central Disaster Management Headquarters.

The government intends to stick with its current plan to revise the social distancing rules while focusing on increasing the number of fully vaccinated people to provide adequate protection from Delta through the third week of July and then proceeding with the first round of vaccination for people in their 50s.

The government emphasizes that few cases of Delta have been detected in the country so far. But since local transmission of the variant has already begun, many think it’s just a matter of time before Delta becomes widespread.

“Ultimately, a key part of our strategy for responding to the Delta variant is using domestic quarantine measures to slow the speed of transmission. But since it’s also important to maintain a balance between disease control and everyday routines, maintaining the requirement for wearing masks outside to preserve social vigilance would be better [than postponing the revised social distancing rules],” said Choi Won-suk, a professor of infectious disease and internal medicine at Korea University Ansan Hospital.

“It’s true that there’s less risk [of transmission] outside. But if we tell people they don’t have to wear masks, it will cause a big drop in overall vigilance,” Choi added.

Korea’s Central Disease Control Headquarters announced Sunday that 634 new cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed the previous day, putting the daily caseload above 600 for the third day in a row.

By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporter

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