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.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing