South Korean health authorities are expected to announce a revised roadmap for social distancing that will give more freedom to businesses, while restricting people’s behaviors more strictly, to combat COVID-19.
“So far Korea has restricted the opening of businesses and public places without necessarily limiting the movement of people or other individual behaviors,” mentioned Health Ministry spokesperson Son Youg-rae during a news briefing last week.
“From now on, closures and other curbs on companies will be minimized, and instead actions such as travel, gatherings, and outings will be subject to tougher controls.”
According to the ministry, current infection cases have largely been driven by in-person interactions amongst friends or household. About 36 % of all recently confirmed patients caught COVID-19 from somebody they know, whereas as many as 23 % couldn’t be contact-traced — which means that they weren’t related to known outbreaks.
Son mentioned the latest pattern indicates that the virus is spreading mainly by person-to-person events, which is why the ban on private gatherings of 5 people or more has proved particularly effective in beating again the December surge in infections.
Son hinted that the government plans to introduce a more tightened gatherings ban mimicking New Zealand’s model of “social bubbles,” under which solely an exclusive group of up to 10 people is allowed to meet each other.
The social bubble approach has been credited with helping New Zealand efficiently control the spread of infections, with still only 26 deaths as of Sunday.
“Every person’s realm of social interactions can be limited to individuals whom they live with or should maintain regular contact with,” Son mentioned. “If you can’ telecommute, your bubble would include your co-workers, for instance.”
He mentioned the bubbles can be used under stricter tiers of social distancing. “You not must socially distance from individuals included within the bubble, however, should avoid mingling with anyone outside the bubble.”
The imminent replacement is meant to reduce damage to the economy from the pandemic measures. “Social distancing burden has to be shared by the whole of society rather than certain sectors,” he mentioned. He recognized that the way social distancing has worked in Korea over the last yr has induced small businesses to endure without fair compensation.
Though there will be more stress on individuals to refrain from socializing, how a lot of the rules shall be mandatory remains to be decided.
“The first draft of the social distancing scheme is expected to be finalized sometime next week. Because the case rates are as soon as again on the rise, its introduction could be postponed,” he mentioned.
Son added that Korea had room to sustain a larger number of sufferers at a time than is dictated by the present system. Currently, the strictest tier of social distancing is implemented when there are 800 to 1,000 cases a day.
“Our health care system capacity has been expanded to be able to stand about 1,000 patients being diagnosed per day for about three weeks,” he mentioned.
“In light of our improved response, social distancing rules can be applied more sparingly for the remainder of the pandemic. As vaccinations will quickly start, I feel we can expect to ease off on social distancing even further in May or June.”
