S. Korea extends curbs as new clusters emerge

SEOUL • South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks until the end of the Chinese New Year holidays as new infection clusters emerge in the country, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said yesterday.

The announcement dashed earlier expectations that the government would ease the rules from the current highest levels, which include a restaurant curfew and a ban on gatherings of more than four people and have been in place since early December.

But the health authorities decided to maintain the curbs after a new large outbreak emerged from missionary training schools across the country last week, reversing a recent downtrend in daily infections ahead of the Chinese New Year break, which begins on Feb 12. "The government is planning to extend the current distancing levels and anti-virus standards as they are until the (Chinese) New Year holidays end," Mr Chung told an intra-agency meeting.

"The third Covid-19 wave, which had temporarily slowed, is again threatening our daily lives following the group infections from the missionary institutes."

In line with the decision, indoor cafe and restaurant dining after 9pm and any gatherings of more than four people - two key measures that have proved effective - will continue to be prohibited.

Mr Chung said the ongoing spread must be further dampened to facilitate South Korea's vaccination campaign and the start of the spring school semester, which are respectively set for this month and March. "This decision was not easy," Mr Chung said.

Some 117,000 doses of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, enough for about 60,000 people, will arrive as early as mid-February via the global distribution scheme Covax, Mr Chung said.

REUTERS