As the government has extended the current social distancing for three more weeks, public adherence toward quarantine rules seems to be declining.
Under the decision, the greater Seoul area, home to more than half of the country's 52 million people, will remain under Level 2 social distancing, the third-highest in the five-tier scheme, through June 13. The rest of the country is subject to Level 1.5 distancing, although some large cities, including Busan, voluntarily apply the Level 2 distancing.
The guidelines limit operating hours of restaurants and bars to 10 p.m., with gatherings of five or more people banned nationwide. Korea, however, has never imposed a full lockdown.
The public health authorities entered into a state of emergency Monday, as a new cluster outbreak stemming from pubs in Daegu continues to spread relentlessly throughout the city. The cumulative caseload in the southeastern metropolis has exceeded 150 in five days, including 40 confirmed on Monday.
Municipal officials expressed concerns that if the city sees more than 50 cases daily, there is a possibility that the city's hospital bed utilization rate will exceed 80 percent this week.
As the group infection that occurred in entertainment establishments spread rapidly, Daegu formed a special team to respond to the spread of the virus. The city will request the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters to allow Covid-19 variant tests as the first confirmed person had visited the bar with a friend who tested positive for the U.K. variant.
City officials also stressed that they would prosecute business owners and customers and impose penalties as compensation if any violations occur during the emergency quarantine period.
The central health authorities said the first batch of 55,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine would arrive next Monday. The batch is part of the 40 million doses that the government had contracted with the company.
The news comes after the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved the use of the Moderna vaccine last week.
"The government plans to announce additional plans for the introduction of Moderna's vaccine as soon as they are confirmed," a government vaccination task force official said. "We expect a full-fledged supply of Moderna's vaccine in the second half-year."
The government will proceed with the first vaccination for 13 million people by June with 18.32 million doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines in the first half of this year and use other vaccines, including Moderna's, for vaccination after then.
"We plan to support the goal of forming herd immunity by November by sequentially introducing the 192 million doses that we have secured this year," he added.
Korea has vaccinated 3,792,906 people – 2,061,634 with the AstraZeneca vaccine and 1,731,272 with Pfizer's vaccine – with the first shot of the vaccine 217 from the previous day. The figure accounts for 7.4 percent of the country's population.
On Friday, Korea confirmed 538 new cases, including 513 local infections, raising the cumulative caseload to 136,467.
Three more people died of the Covid-19, raising the death toll to 1,934 with a fatality rate of 1.42 percent, and a total of 126,427 people have returned to their daily life after full recovery, up 546 from the previous day. The country has carried out 9,553,613 tests since Jan. 3 last year.