#16,421
Six weeks ago - when South Korea introduced their `Living with COVID' policy' which began a phased easing of many restrictions - COVID cases were running around 2,000 per day. A month later (see South Korea Sets Another Record For Daily COVID Cases (n=7,142)), those daily rates had more than tripled.
While most of South Korea's recent COVID surge has been due to Delta, Omicron is beginning to make inroads as well, and today Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum announced new social distancing restrictions starting Saturday in hopes of blunting this rising tide of cases.
A summary of the immediate changes is provided by the Korean Herald.
Starting Saturday, up to four fully-vaccinated people can sit together at restaurants and cafes. Those who have not been vaccinated can sit alone or use take-out and delivery services.
In the case of multi-use facilities, the operating hours of each facility will be limited based on whether or not a mask can be worn.
Entertainment facilities and restaurants and cafes with relatively high risk can only operate until 9 p.m. Movie theaters, performance halls and PC rooms will be limited to 10 p.m., but private academies will be exempt.
In addition, the number of people allowed to attend large-scale events and rallies is reduced, and quarantine passes are expanded to exhibitions, fairs and international conferences.
Prime Minister Kim urged citizens to refrain from year-end and New Year‘s meetings and events, and reduce unnecessary outings and meetings.
These new restrictions will remain in place until at least January 2nd, and will be reviewed (and likely extended) at that time.
Although it is undoubtedly an undercount, as of today, South Korea has detected 148 cases of the Omicron variant.
