South Korean officials announced an easing of social distancing restrictions, even as the country saw its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic yesterday, reflecting reduced political capacity to deal with a fast-developing surge of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the face of a growing economic toll and a presidential election next week.
South Korean Minister of the Interior and Safety Jeon Hae-cheol said that the start of curfew at restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other indoor businesses is to be pushed back by one hour from 10pm to 11pm starting today.
He cited people’s fatigue and frustration with extended restrictions, and the damage to livelihoods.
Officials have maintained a six-person limit on private social gatherings, citing “uncertainties” posed by Omicron.
Jeon’s announcement from a government meeting discussing the national COVID-19 response came shortly before South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 186 deaths within 24 hours, breaking the previous one-day record of 128 set a day earlier.
Omicron seems less likely to cause serious illness or death compared with the Delta variant that hit the country hard in December last year and January, but hospitalizations have been creeping up amid the greater scale of outbreak.
While nearly 800 people with COVID-19 were in serious or critical conditions, South Korean Deputy Minister of Health Lee Ki-il said that the country was not in immediate danger of running out of hospital beds, with nearly half of the 2,700 intensive care units designated for COVID-19 treatment still available.
Health experts advising the government had opposed easing restrictions, but insisted that the move was inevitable considering the shock on service sector businesses,” Lee said.
“The decision on social distancing measures was made in consideration of both the epidemiological situation and livelihoods,” Lee said during a media briefing. “I want to stress that the decision was made after real, careful deliberation.”
The move to extend indoor dining hours came after officials removed another key preventive measure last week that had required adults to show proof of vaccination or negative tests to enter potentially crowded spaces such as restaurants, coffee shops and gyms.
The Omicron surge has prompted the country to reshape its pandemic response in a way that tolerates the virus’ spread among the broader population while concentrating medical resources to protect priority groups.
However, there is growing concern over the bend-but-not-break approach, as the country continues to report some of the world’s highest daily infection numbers.
More than 925,000 COVID-19 cases with mild or moderate symptoms have been asked to isolate at home to save hospital space.
The country has also reshaped its testing policy to promote rapid antigen test kits, despite concerns over their propensity for false-negative results, to save laboratory tests mostly for priority groups.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS