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South Korea is extending its strict social distancing measures for the Seoul metropolitan area for one more week until September 13, the country’s Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said in a briefing today.
“The government feels it is necessary to extend these measures until the new daily figures visibly decrease so that our epidemiological investigation and the capacity of the medical system can handle the situation,” Park explained.
The current restrictions were due to expire this Sunday.
All kindergartens and schools, except some high school classes in the Seoul metropolitan area, will continue to teach online classes for two more weeks until September 20, said Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education Park Baek-beom in a separate briefing.
All restaurants and bakeries will continue to interrupt food services between 9:00 p.m. M. And 5:00 a. M., local time, and the gyms and indoor sports facilities will be closed for another week due to this decision.
The rest of South Korea, where level two social distancing measures are in place, will maintain the restrictions for two more weeks from September 9 to September 20, Park said. However, local authorities can adjust the duration of the restrictions.
What does level two social distancing mean: Indoor meetings are limited to 50 people and outdoor meetings to 100. Churches across the country are strongly encouraged to conduct online services by local authorities, Park added.
South Korea reported 198 new coronavirus cases since Thursday, of which 189 are local cases and nine are imported, according to a press release from the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) on Friday. . Currently, South Korea has 20,842 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 331 deaths from the virus.
