S. Korea decides to ease social distancing, retains ban on gatherings of 5 or more

▲ Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun speaks during a session of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters at the central government complex in Seoul on Feb. 13, 2021. (Yonhap)

S Korea-social distancing measures

S. Korea decides to ease social distancing, retains ban on gatherings of 5 or more

SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Yonhap) -- The government decided Saturday to lower social distancing levels by one notch each for the greater Seoul area and the other regions next week, but kept tight vigilance to curb COVID-19 by retaining a ban on gatherings of five people or more.

Health authorities said that starting Monday, they plan to lower social distancing guidelines to Level 2 -- the third highest in a five-tier system -- for the greater Seoul area and Level 1.5 for other regions.

They will also ease restrictions on restaurants and other public facilities in the Seoul metropolitan area to allow them to operate for one more hour until 10 p.m., amid complaints by pandemic-hit small business operators.

The authorities, however, decided to keep the ban on gatherings of five or more people, as sporadic cluster infections continued to hamper their efforts to fight the winter wave of the pandemic.

"It is a decision that we made while adhering faithfully to principles but in consideration of public fatigue," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a session of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.

"We also decided to ease restrictions on small merchants and other businesses who have cooperated with antivirus efforts despite the excruciating pains," he added, stressing the difficulty finding the optimal "balance between the anti-virus fight and livelihoods."

Chung cautioned against complacency.

"We are in a situation where we can never rest assured as daily infection tallies are in the 300-400 range," he said.

The prime minister also stressed the quarantine efforts based on "autonomy and responsibility."

On Saturday, the country reported 362 more COVID-19 cases, including 345 local infections, raising the total caseload to 83,199, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. It added seven fatalities, bringing the accumulative death toll to 1,514.

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