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The owner of a Seoul nightlife establishment is cleaning up in preparation for new social distancing rules on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 30. The new rules were supposed to take effect on July 1, but they have now been delayed for a week.

COVID-19 infections in the greater Seoul area are spreading at an alarming rate, with a total of 213 cases confirmed in 10 days in connection with a cluster that spread through bars in the Hongik University area of Seoul’s Mapo District and afterschool English academies in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon.

Adding to the concerns is the discovery that some of the patients in this cluster were confirmed to have been infected with the Delta variant of the virus.

The South Korean government accepted suggestions from the cities of Seoul and Incheon and Gyeonggi Province to delay implementation of its revised social distancing plan, which is to be pushed back one week from its original July 1 start date for the greater Seoul area.

But it also plans to go ahead as scheduled on July 1 with the relaxation of certain restrictions in order to incentivize vaccination, including leaving fully vaccinated individuals out of the total when counting the maximum number of participants allowed in personal gatherings, and exempting those with at least one vaccine dose from outdoor mask-wearing requirements.

“We have agreed to delay the application of the new social distancing regime for one week, out of respect for the independent decision of local governments in the greater Seoul area,” South Korea’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (CDSCH) said Wednesday afternoon.

“We will work with local governments as we apply all our energies to containing the outbreak in the capital region.”

“The vaccination incentives will be applied around the country on July 1 regardless of social distancing, and that’s also true for the greater Seoul area,” the CDSCH said.

“Local governments have the authority to issue separate administrative orders that make it mandatory to wear masks outside,” said Son Young-rae, director of strategy and planning at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters (CDMH), hinting at the possibility of further changes.

South Korea’s Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) reported 794 new cases Wednesday, including 759 local and 35 imported cases.

The last time the daily caseload topped 700 was 25 days ago on June 5 (744 cases). Wednesday’s tally was also the largest in the 68 days since April 23 (797 cases). The caseload jumped from 595 on the previous day all the way to nearly 800.

COVID-19 transmission is currently concentrated in the greater Seoul area. Among the 759 cases transmitted locally, 631, or 83%, were from that area (368 in Seoul, 234 in Gyeonggi Province, and 29 in Incheon). That represented Seoul’s biggest daily tally of COVID-19 cases this year.

When a group of foreign teachers at English cram schools visited a bar in Seoul’s Hongik University neighborhood (locally known as “Hongdae”) on June 19, they were all infected with COVID-19. That led to a string of other infections among other bar patrons and students at English cram schools in Seongnam, Bucheon, Goyang, and Uijeongbu (all cities in Gyeonggi Province) and in Incheon. As of June 30, 213 cases have been traced to that bar, with 51 new cases reported on the previous day alone.

Furthermore, genomic analysis shows that nine cases in this cluster involved the Delta strain of the COVID-19 virus, which is understood to be more infectious than the original virus.

“The Delta variant has been confirmed in yesterday’s infection cluster at English language cram schools. There’s also an epidemiological link to a bar in Mapo District that appears to have been impacted by Delta. We are acting on the assumption that the patients infected in these clusters have the variant,” said Park Yeong-jun, head of epidemiological research at the CDCH.

In other words, the disease control authorities are treating the infection cluster — which has now expanded to 213 cases — as being an outbreak of the Delta variant.

The visitors’ logs at eight bars in Hongdae, including La Bamba and Zen Bar, were found to be incomplete, preventing the local authorities from identifying everyone who might have been exposed to the virus. That’s raising concerns that the cluster could grow even bigger.

The CDSCH and the city of Seoul have sent out alerts asking people who visited those bars between June 16 and June 28 to get tested for COVID-19. If a substantial number of people are unaware of their exposure or avoid getting tested, the cluster could lead to a major outbreak of the Delta variant.

“We sent out the alert because local governments found that some of the entries on the visitors’ logs were illegible and because the number of additional cases suggested that [the logs] were incomplete,” explained Park, from the CDCH.

The two stages of the new social distancing rules — which local governments in the greater Seoul area had been planning to implement on July 1 and 14 — are being delayed for at least a week. As a result, authorities are extending the current quarantine restrictions, including the four-person cap on private meetings and the mandatory 10 pm closing time at restaurants, cafés, and other public facilities.

Under the revised social distancing rules, the central government and local governments in the greater Seoul area had intended to allow up to six people to meet privately and public facilities to stay open until midnight from July 14.

By Kim Ji-hoon, Kim Yang-jin, and Seo Hye-mi, staff reporters

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