[Q&A] "Extension of Social Distancing? Will Announce Before This Weekend"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The government stated on the 2nd that it will announce whether to extend the high-intensity social distancing measures before this weekend.

Kim Kang-lip, the 1st Chief Coordinator of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH), said at a regular briefing held at the Government Complex Sejong on the same day, "If possible, we will explain to the public the future direction of social distancing before the weekend."

Chief Coordinator Kim explained, "The goal is to create easy and specific guidelines for daily life to transition to living quarantine. Since these guidelines need to be established as actual culture or customs, sufficient discussion, understanding, and learning processes are necessary."

Earlier, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, at a CDSCH meeting held at the Government Complex Seoul, said, "We cannot indefinitely postpone returning to normal life, and we are well aware that the public's fatigue is considerable," but also pointed out, "Given the unprecedented rapid global spread and the continued influx from overseas and cluster infections, easing social distancing carries the risk of causing infections to spread again."

◇Below is a Q&A with Chief Coordinator Kim regarding the extension of social distancing

- Has a social consensus body been formed for the transition to a living quarantine system?

▲ Living quarantine is a stage to establish the policy of high-intensity social distancing as daily life quarantine. It involves tasks that the public can directly participate in and adhere to, and that must be established as a new culture or custom. Therefore, I believe sufficient discussion, understanding, formation of consensus, and learning are necessary.

- What specific guidelines will be prepared?

▲ Since the goal is to make it easy to understand in daily life, we plan to create very specific guidelines. I think they will be established through various processes and opinions will be gathered.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.