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People line up while maintaining proper distance to enter the National Museum of Korea on May 6. (Baek So-ha, staff photographer)

“Wash your hands, doo-roo-roo-doo-roo, with Ollie, doo-roo-roo-doo-roo, wash your hands, doo-roo-roo-doo-roo, with soap!”

The spirited song played as the bubbles came out after I pressed the button for soap on the restroom wall to wash my hands. To the tune of Pinkfong’s song “Baby Shark,” which recently took the world by storm, the lyrics urged patrons to wash both sides of their hands thoroughly and clasp them together. “Ollie” is the name of the baby shark. The song lasts for exactly 30 seconds to match the amount of time designated by disease control authorities for hand-washing according to “rule one” of personal hygiene. A sticker on the soap canister read “30-second singing soap.” The idea was devised by the government to encourage children to develop the habit of hand-washing in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Titled “Washing Hands with Baby Shark,” the song rang out all day long in the restrooms of the Children’s Museum of the National Museum of Korea in Seoul’s Yongsan District and the National Library for Children and Young Adults in the Gangnam District on May 6, the first day of practicing “everyday social distancing.” They were the first sounds of life emerging from the two institutions in over 70 days since they were closed in late February due to the outbreak.

Public soap dispensers installed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism at the Children’s Museum of the National Museum of Korea which play 30-second tunes to encourage children to wash their hands thoroughly for at least 30 seconds. (provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)

The two of them were joined by 22 other national and public facilities that re-opened their doors the same day after their temporary hiatuses, including art and national history museums and libraries. “Distancing” stickers were pasted on the ground at entrances and other high-density locations; visitors followed the instructions by keeping their distance as they lined up. Masks and temperature checks were obligatory, and most admissions were purchased in advance online. Tailored to the disease control authorities’ guidelines for everyday social distancing, the landscape was quite different from the one two months earlier.

To welcome back citizens fatigued from remaining indoors and commemorate its re-opening after 71 days, the National Museum of Korea provided bouquets of flowers to the first-arriving visitors and distributed masks to 100 people. Visitors were restricted to 300 per hour, and on-site sales were restricted to within that scope. The maximum number of visitors was reached for every time period except for the relatively early one around 10 am.

The images also drew the attention of the foreign press. The National Museum of Korea explained, “We’ve been taking reservations through our homepage since May 4. People who weren’t able to make reservations have been applying on site, and the area around the information desk hasn’t been too crowded, with a barrier in place to block saliva and stickers urging people to maintain a safe distance.”

“The response [to this] was so keen that as soon as we opened our doors at 10 am, we have reporters covering it not only from the domestic broadcasters but also from the foreign press and networks like Al Jazeera and Fuji TV,” the museum added.

Briefings by the disaster prevention officials of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCHQ) and Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) were also held face-to-face for the first time in 45 days. All of the attendees wore masks and sat with empty chairs in between. Meeting with reporters after the breaking, CDSCHQ General Coordinator Kim Kang-lip said, “We finally get to see your faces for the briefing.”

“It’s been odd looking only at the cameras. It’s nice to actually see people,” he added with a smile.

Commenting on the experience, Kim said the “most gratifying part was holding the general election on Apr. 15 safely [without community infections] with over 20 million voters taking part, when other countries have been cancelling not just national but local elections.”

With the pro baseball season kicking off on May 4, pro soccer and women’s golf events are scheduled to begin on May 8 and 14, respectively, with other individual sports events to be organized by local governments and sports groups. While the first pro baseball games on May 5 were held without spectators, it appears likely sports fans will be able to see them in person in the near future.

“Once measures have been developed for the public’s safety, we plan to gradually expand the number of competitions where spectators are able to attend in the near future,” said Seo Jeong-hyeop, director of the first administration department for the city of Seoul, which is home to three baseball teams with the Doosan Bears, LG Twins, and Kiwoom Heroes.

Sports events for students are to be gradually resumed as of June as students return to schools. But the cancellations and postponements of regional festivals appear likely to continue for the time being.

The government plans to expand upon the current list of 31 detailed disease prevention guidelines by facility and situation and announce a list of around 70 by late May.

“The guidelines the government has presented are not airtight. We’re well aware that they aren’t perfect,” Kim Kang-lip explained.

“The government can’t force the public to live their lives a certain way, so we’re planning to add more content that makes people go, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’”

By Choi Ha-ya, Kwon Ji-dam, and Song Gyung-hwa, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]