Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum on Friday said private gathering size in South Korea will be increased to six as restaurant and cafes curfew will stay at 9:00 p.m. for the next three weeks, The Korea Herald reported.
This, as the country logged around 4, 000 daily COVID-19 cases recently as the government aggressively campaigned for people to get booster shots and strengthened antivirus measures as CASES hover around 7, 000 in December last year.
But with the increase of cases of the more infectious COVID-19 omicron variant, health authorities are not letting go of their guards as there is a possibility that the cases will rise more later this month with the Lunar New Year holiday period.
“The omicron variant is spreading quickly especially from last week and is on the verge of becoming the dominant variant as it accounted for 20 percent of domestic cases two days ago,” Kim told a COVID-19 response meeting. “I request people to restrain from their hometown visits and meetings with relatives and families during the Lunar New Year holiday period.”
The majority of the present restrictions aside from the gathering limit will remain, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The country started implementing toughened social distancing protocols in the middle of last month.
Also included in the measures to be implemented is the COVID-19 vaccine pass system which is applied at the entrance of dining establishments, cafes, and other facilities.
Meanwhile, the new distancing protocols will take effect from Monday until Feb. 6.
A special quarantine period will also take place from Jan. 20 to Feb. 2 as the government also announced more antivirus measures to prevent an uptick in cases during the holiday.