The South Korean government yesterday announced that people visiting restaurants, movie theaters and other public spaces would have to show their COVID-19 vaccine passports.
The move comes amid a surge in COVID-19 infections and five confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The government also reimposed limits on private gatherings, which were relaxed last month.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The country posted record numbers of new cases this week. Desperate to fend off the Omicron variant, authorities on Thursday halted quarantine exemptions for fully vaccinated inbound travelers and made a 10-day quarantine mandatory.
From Monday, people visiting 14 designated public spaces, including hospitality and entertainment venues, would have to show their vaccines passes, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a COVID-19 response meeting, adding that the plan aims to reduce the risk of community spread.
The public would have a grace period of one week to get used to the new rules, he said.
While people have been required to show their vaccine passports at high-risk venues such as gyms, saunas and bars, it is the first time that the requirement has been extended to restaurants and cafes.
From February, anyone aged 12 years or older would have to show their vaccine passport.
The government decided to lower the exemption age, currently set at 17 years, to encourage teenagers to get vaccinated as the under-18 age group accounts for 20 percent of all infections, South Korean Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-cheol told a briefing.
The limit on private gatherings was cut to six people in the greater Seoul area, and eight outside, from the current limit of 10 in Seoul and 12 outside, Kwon said.
South Korea has so far confirmed a total of five Omicron cases, after a fully vaccinated couple tested positive for the variant after last week arriving from Nigeria.
The cases are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms such as headache, a low fever, dizziness and a sore throat, health authorities said.
South Korea on Thursday reported 4,944 COVID-19 cases, a slight decline from the record 5,266 cases on Wednesday. It has reported a total of 462,555 cases, and 3,739 deaths from the virus.
South Korea has fully vaccinated 91.6 percent of its adult population, yet booster dose uptake remains at 8.1 percent.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion