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| City residents enjoy the holiday in tents at a park alongside the Han River in Seoul, Sunday, amid signs of a slowdown in the number of new COVId-19 infections. / Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
The government has decided to further loosen its guidelines on social distancing, beginning Wednesday, amid clear signs of a slowdown in the number of new COVID-19 infections here, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Sunday.
Under its "Distancing in daily life" plan, the government will allow the phased reopening of facilities that have been shut down amid the coronavirus outbreak, Chung said.
The government will also allow meetings and events to be held as long as participants abide by some basic quarantine guidelines.
"The country will move on to distancing in daily life," Chung said during a pan-government COVID-19 meeting. "Many experts and officials from local governments have agreed that conditions to do so have been met."
Chung also hinted that the government would lower its alert level against COVID-19 soon, saying the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) will discuss the matter.
On Feb. 23, the administration raised its alert level against the contagious disease to its "highest" in response to the confirmation of hundreds of new cases at the time.
"The risk of infection in and outside the country still exist, but the assessment of the situation by the health authorities is that most risks are now under control," Chung said.
The prime minister added that the Ministry of Education will announce a decision on when to have students physically attend schools, Monday.
On March 22, the government intensified its social distancing drive, asking churches and other facilities to suspend operations, while advising citizens to refrain from going outside and gathering in large groups.
The administration announced a two-week extension of the high-level of physical distancing, April 4.
On April 19, the government extended this again by another two weeks until May 5 in consideration of the six-day holiday as many citizens were expected to travel across the country. But it eased the strictness of implementation because the prolonged high-level physical distancing has resulted in mental fatigue among citizens.
At the time, the government allowed outdoor facilities with lower risk of infections, such as recreational forests, to resume operations, and professional baseball games and other outside sports events to be played without spectators.
The KCDC detected 13 new infections Saturday, bringing the nation's total to 10,793.
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The KCDC said the death toll remained at 250, noting that the country's fatality rate stood at 2.32 percent.
KCDC Director Jung Eun-kyeong stressed the need for individuals to abide by "the five rules" even after moving on to the distancing in daily life, saying there could be a considerable number of infected people that have not been detected by the health authorities.
The five rules call for people to stay home when they feel ill, keep a distance of about two meters between each other, wash hands frequently, wear face masks and ventilate indoor spaces regularly.
"People should follow the five rules as those are the most effective precautionary measures until a vaccine or medicine for the virus is developed," Jung said during a media briefing.
