SEOUL – South Korea lifted almost all of its COVID-19 precautions on Monday (Apr 18) in a major step towards a return to normal life.
A midnight curfew on restaurants and other businesses was removed, along with a cap of 10 people allowed to gather. From next week, people will be allowed to eat snacks in cinemas and other indoor public facilities such as stadiums.
People are still required to wear masks, however, with the government planning to review whether to lift a rule for masks outdoors in two weeks.
Some rules, however, remain including mandatory quarantine for unvaccinated inbound travellers and negative PCR tests for the fully vaccinated.
South Korea has largely managed to limit deaths and critical cases through widespread vaccination, and it has scaled back the aggressive tracing and containment efforts that made it a mitigation success story for most of the first two years of the pandemic.
Nearly 87% of the 52 million population are fully vaccinated, with 64% having also had a booster, according to Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency data.
In line with the easing of the rules, companies are gradually returning to their offices.
The government had recommended workplaces with 300 or more employees adopt flexible working hours and have 10% of staff work from home.
