SEOUL: South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-Kyun on Thursday ordered a revamp of social distancing guidelines in a bid to win greater public support for efforts to cease local transmission of the new coronavirus.
“Reasonably than introduce the rules unilaterally, we should make the virus prevention guidelines along with the public,” Chung told an intra-agency meeting on Thursday.
Health authorities warned on Thursday that a large fourth wave of infections caused by the more transmissible British and South African coronavirus variants can’t be ruled out. There have been 39 confirmed cases of those variants.
Whereas South Korea had initial success in containing the virus without drastic lockdowns, an incremental approach to social distancing and more rigid guidelines were criticized for leaving it scrambling to contain the third wave of transmissions.
South Korea has one of many world’s highest proportion of self-employed individuals, about 25 percent of the job market, making it particularly vulnerable to downturns.
Authorities on Sunday extended by two weeks a requirement to observe social distancing, urging vigilance ahead of the Chinese New Year period, when tens of millions of Koreans usually travel across the nation. The vacation begins on Feb 11.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 7 new deaths and 451 new cases by Wednesday, for a total of 1,448 deaths and 79,762 cases overall.
