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Members of a church in Gwangju’s Buk District get tested at a screening center on Sept. 6. (Yonhap News)

The South Korean government recommended that people refrain from traveling to their hometown and visiting relatives and conduct “virtual ancestral gravesite visits” for the upcoming Chuseok holiday. While the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases appears to have been contained with the daily caseload remaining under 200 for four straight days, the recommendation was based on the determination that it would be “impossible to fully control asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections over the three weeks until Chuseok.”

In a regular briefing on Sept. 6, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCHQ) announced disease control measures for the extended Chuseok holiday period from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4.

“The need for stronger disease control management during Chuseok has been suggested in light of the precedents of nationwide transmission of COVID-19 following extended holidays in May and August and the fact that the current outbreak has yet to definitely subside,” the CDSCHQ explained.

Son Young-rae, director-general of the CDSCHQ strategy and planning team, said, “We recommend that people refrain as much as possible from traveling to their hometowns and visiting relatives this Chuseok.”

“While the trend in new COVID-19 diagnoses has been declining, cluster infections are still surfacing in many different places connected with our daily lives, and we are seeing a large number of cases of patients with unknown transmission routes. It will not be possible to fully control this over the period until Chuseok,” Son warned.

Indeed, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 167 new cases as of 12 am on Sept. 6, the result of scattered infection clusters throughout the country. The number was in the 100-199 patient range for the fourth straight day. For the two-week period from Aug. 24 to Sept. 6, the proportion of cases with no identified transmission route totaled 21.5%. Infection clusters have also continued in numerous locations, with an additional 15 confirmed cases as of Sept. 6 at a mobile phone telemarketing business in Seoul’s Gangdong District. In Incheon, an entire family was diagnosed with the virus, including a two-month-old baby girl.

The CDSCHQ also recommended that people conduct “virtual ancestral grave visits” and refrain from visits to tidy up gravesites during the Chuseok holiday. Its request is that people take advantage of online grave visiting services provided as of Sept. 21 by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW)’s funeral database “eHaneul” and the gravesite cleanup services offered by the National Forestry Cooperative Federation and Nonghyup, among other organizations. Those who need to visit indoor enshrinement establishments will have to make prior reservations during the surrounding period between the third week of September and third week of October, during which ancestral ritual rooms and bereaved family lounge spaces will be closed. Indoor consumption of food and beverages will also be prohibited.

Senior citizen care facilities and healthcare establishments are barring visitors as a rule during the Chuseok period, although in unavoidable cases, visits will be allowed via reservation in a room with a clear partition installed to prevent direct contact. The number of railway tickets sold is to be reduced by half, with only window seats available by reservation. The government plans to consider imposing the equivalent of Level 2 social distancing measures during the Chuseok holiday, including closing high-risk facilities such as clubs and other nightlife establishments. It also said these guidelines are unlikely to be altered even if the daily number of new cases drops below 50 -- previously announced as the standard for lowering the social distancing level -- before the extended holiday.

Meanwhile, students planning to retake the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) are expected to be able to sit for a mock assessment scheduled for Sept. 16 at major academies.

“We are currently in discussions with disease control authorities to allow for a system in which even large academies are restricted to having no more than 50 people in a classroom at one time and are instructed to keep their windows opened during the practice test,” a Ministry of Education official said on Sept. 6. Large academies with 300 or more students will be shut down through Sept. 20 following the extension of Level 2.5 social distancing measures.

By Choi Won-hyung and Seo Hye-mi, and Park Kyung-man, North Gyeonggi correspondent

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