#15,619
South Korea, which like Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, has managed to keep a pretty good lid on domestic cases of COVID-19 since the early days of the pandemic (see Epi Chart above), has seen a steep rise in cases since early November.
While their numbers are still enviable when compared to the United States or Europe, President Moon Jae-in declared this an `emergency' overnight (see Moon vows to mobilize all resources to fight COVID-19 as new cases hit record).
The most recent daily total has 928 domestic cases, and 22 imported cases, bringing their total 950 cases in the past 24 hours. More than 1/3rd of those are reported out of the capital Seoul.
Last week, in response to an increase in COVID cases in Busan, the United States Forces Korea (USFK) restricted travel to that city (see USFK Limits Travel To Busan).
Yesterday, in response to the growing number of cases in Seoul, ASFK announced similar restrictions for the nation's capital.
USFK Update:
December 11, 2020
Based on the recent increase of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the greater Seoul metropolitan area, out of an abundance of caution to protect the force, United States Forces Korea has raised its current health protection condition from “Bravo” to “Charlie” for Area II effective Saturday, Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. until further notice.
USFK defines Area II as the greater Seoul metropolitan area with the exact Area II region viewable on the USFK’s interact hotspot map located at the top of this page and in below.
To minimize the potential exposure to others, only mission essential individuals will report for duty with all others conducting telework.
Bars, clubs, karaoke rooms and other areas that limit attendance to adults only, as well as eat-in seated dining is off-limits; take-out and delivery is authorized. Off-installation gyms, fitness facilities, group music lessons, internet cafes, martial arts classes aerobic and dance classes, as well as on and off-installation saunas and steam rooms also remain off-limits for the time being.
Travel within Area II is limited to official and necessary duties only for all USFK-affiliated personnel until further notice.
All other travel requires an exception to policy letter signed by an O-6 officer or equivalent civilian supervisor within the individual or sponsor’s chain of command.
Individuals residing within Area II are authorized to leave that area for approved activities within HPCON Bravo areas.
Bubble-to-bubble travel to Area II remains authorized.
All USFK-affiliated individuals are reminded to adhere to all USFK core tenets, HPCON measures and ROK government and local directives to protect yourself, your bubble and others from COVID-19.
As a testament to USFK’s aggressive preventative control measures to stop the virus’ spread, all USFK-affiliated individuals arriving in South Korea from overseas will be tested for COVID-19, quarantined for 14 days, and must pass a subsequent test with negative results prior to being released from quarantine. If an individual tests positive on any test during quarantine, they will immediately enter isolation.
Despite the recent confirmed cases, USFK remains at a high level of readiness with less than 1% of its active duty service members currently confirmed positive with COVID-19.
USFK continues to maintain a robust combined defense posture to protect the Republic of Korea against any threat or adversary while maintaining prudent preventive measures to protect the force.
