The South Korean government has put in place a tough semi-lockdown for the greater Seoul area. The country is facing its fourth wave of Covid-19. Daily infections surging to their highest-ever levels in South Korea.
- The ‘Level 4’ social distancing rules the most restrictive under South Korean public health guidelines were announced on Friday for Seoul and its neighboring densely populated Gyeonggi Province and Incheon.
- As such, for at least two weeks from Monday, most public gatherings in the Seoul Capital Area will be banned, while private events will be heavily restricted. There will be no in-person classes at schools or partying in nightclubs. Restaurants will have to observe a dine-in curfew starting at 10 pm. Weddings and funerals will be limited to relatives only.
- The South Korean Prime Minister said, “Antivirus measures have reached their maximum crisis level, with record-high new daily Covid-19 cases being renewed for several days.”
- The government has even suspended incentive measures for vaccinated people, who currently have some extra leeway in their daily lives, for the duration of the crisis.
- The semi-lockdown was imposed in an attempt to curb Covid-19 infections, which have surged significantly since the contagious Delta variant of the virus causing the disease reached South Korea.
- New daily infections have broken national records for three days in a row and are now at the highest level since the first case of Covid-19 was identified in January last year.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) recorded 1,316 new cases on Friday, including 1,236 local infections. About 80 percent of the patients came from Seoul and its neighboring areas.
