S. Korea eases curfew on businesses outside Seoul
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A restaurant-lined alleyway in Seoul on Friday. A 9pm operations restriction remains in the metropolitan Seoul area, where more than 70 per cent of South Korea's coronavirus infections are concentrated.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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SEOUL • South Korea has eased curfews on more than half a million restaurants and other businesses outside the capital Seoul, letting them stay open an hour later, amid a public backlash over tight curbs to contain Covid-19.
After using aggressive testing and tracing to blunt several earlier waves of the coronavirus without drastic lockdowns, the authorities have imposed increasingly rigid social distancing rules as they fight the latest wave of the outbreak.
The restraints have pushed small business owners and self-employed people to the limits of what they can endure, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told an intra-agency meeting yesterday.
Businesses outside the capital will now be able to stay open until 10pm, but "the 9pm operations restriction remains as is in the metropolitan Seoul area, where more than 70 per cent of total infections are concentrated, and which still faces the risk of virus transmission", Mr Chung said.
The businesses include some 580,000 cafes, restaurants, indoor fitness facilities and karaoke bars, Vice-Health Minister Kang Do-tae told a briefing. Businesses that flout the virus prevention guidelines will be ordered to close for two weeks, Mr Kang said.
Most of the new Covid-19 cases were in Seoul, the neighbouring port city of Incheon, and Gyeonggi province, home to more than 25 million people.
Hundreds of restaurant and cafe owners across the country have complained about the impact of the bans on their businesses. Gym owners hurt by restrictions reopened in protest against strict social distancing rules.
The authorities extended the current level of social distancing until next Sunday, ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday which begins on Thursday, when tens of millions of Koreans usually travel across the country to family gatherings.
Mr Kang urged people to stay home during the holiday, fearing that travel could cause another surge in coronavirus cases, and said the authorities would maintain a ban on private gatherings of more than four people.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 393 daily new Covid-19 cases as at Friday. That brings total infections reported in South Korea to 80,524, with a death toll of 1,464.
REUTERS
