S. Korean health ministry wrong-footed by Covid-19 dance video
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South Korea's health ministry drew criticism for being out of touch, as most people in South Korea live in apartments. It apologised, saying the video failed to consider "multiple issues including noise between floors".
PHOTO: SOUTH KOREA'S MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND WELFARE/YOUTUBE
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SEOUL • South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare has taken down a video it posted on social media encouraging dancing to beat the coronavirus blues.
The video, uploaded on New Year's Day and deleted yesterday, drew criticism for being out of touch, as most of the people in South Korea live in apartments.
The ministry apologised in a statement on Facebook, saying the video - promoting dancing as a way to cope with the coronavirus pandemic - failed to consider "multiple issues including noise between floors".
"We apologise to the public. We have now made the video private," said the ministry.
The video is no longer available on Facebook or YouTube.
The video shows five members of a family doing household chores in an apartment before being joined by a TV reporter and breaking into a dance.
Gatherings of five people or more are banned in the capital Seoul and its surrounding area, and the same rule is set to take effect nationwide tomorrow.
Families living in the same household are an exception.
The dancers in the video jump in unison at one point as the song goes, "Go away, stress. Go away, coronavirus".
According to recent data from Statistics Korea, nearly six in 10 dwellings throughout the country were apartments as at last year.
The backlash comes as the government had to defend its late entry in the vaccine race in recent weeks as critics accused it of celebrating the country's handling of the pandemic - also known as the K-Quarantine Model - too soon.
In July, the United States signed a deal with Pfizer and BioNTech to buy 100 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine. Japan also struck a deal to buy their vaccine for 60 million people the same month.
Early last month, South Korea said it had "secured" Covid-19 vaccines for 44 million people though it had signed an official contract only with AstraZeneca for 10 million people at that time.
The announcements of a deal with Pfizer, Janssen and Moderna came weeks later.
THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
