The government said Friday it would push ahead with the most rigid social distancing measures of Level 4 in the greater Seoul area and Level 3 steps outside the capital area for another two weeks.
At an interagency meeting, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said that the rising infection trend has been somewhat settled but remains far from over.
Kim explained that the National Liberation Day on Aug. 15 could spark another wave of mass infection, emphasizing that the country needs to create an environment where children can safely attend schools in the second semester.
"With about two weeks left to open schools for the second semester, the government will do all it can to stabilize the infection so our children can go to schools and learn with their friends from the second semester," Kim said. "The Education Ministry will announce detailed plans and measures for normalizing schools next week."
The toughest restrictions of Level 4 ban gatherings of more than two people after 6 p.m. and place a 10 p.m. curfew on restaurants and cafes and a ban on nightclubs and other entertainment venues.
Under Level 3, cafes and restaurants can accept customers until 10 p.m., and only takeout and delivery services are available after that time. Private gatherings of five or more people are banned.
The prime minister indicated that the government could ease social distancing measures if the daily number of new virus cases drops to 800 on a weekly average in Seoul and surrounding areas.
Kim added that the government would ease social distancing measures on religious facilities. For example, the government will allow the religious gatherings of 10 percent of the facilities’ seating capacity – up to 10 if the capacity is 100 or less, and up to 99 if the capacity is 101 or more.
However, commenting on some churches’ plans to hold outdoor rallies on Aug. 15, Kim stressed that the government would guarantee religious freedom, but the “religious beliefs and political interests come ahead of people’s lives and safety.”
He made it clear that the government would not permit acts proliferating infections until the fourth viral wave is over.
On Friday, 1,704 people were newly infected by the virus, including 1,640 within the country, increasing the cumulative caseload to 207,406, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily tally remained above 1,700 for three consecutive days. Four more people died of the coronavirus, increasing the death toll to 2,113 with a fatality rate of 1.02 percent.
The daily caseload has remained above 1,000 since July 7, reaching as high as 1,895, due to outbreaks centered in the greater Seoul area.
Cases outside the capital area have also been growing recently amid increased activities in the summer vacation season and the highly transmissible delta variant spread.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the number of Covid-19 infections worldwide has increased for six consecutive weeks. It is rapidly growing even in some countries that seemed to be containing the virus quite well.
Last week, the world saw 4.11 million new infected cases, up 210,000 from the previous week, according to the World Health Organization.
Despite the highest Covid-19 vaccination rate of 78.9 percent among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members, Iceland has seen a record high daily cases as the number of patients has surged in the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, Korea has vaccinated 20,529,566 people – 10,429,759 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, 8,078,121 with Pfizer's vaccine, 1,129,767 with Janssen's vaccine, 891,919 with Moderna's vaccine – with the first shot of the vaccine up 191,478 from the previous day.
The country has completed vaccinating about 40 percent of the population.