President Moon and Prime Minister Chung Weekly Meeting... "Thorough Preparation for Daily Quarantine Needed"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] On the 20th, President Moon Jae-in emphasized thorough preparation for the phased transition to daily quarantine measures and the systematization of international quarantine cooperation during his weekly meeting with Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun regarding the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) situation.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, President Moon and Prime Minister Chung held their weekly meeting at the Blue House on the day to comprehensively review the COVID-19 quarantine situation and discuss major issues such as the extension of social distancing and international cooperation in quarantine. They also exchanged views on the 'post-COVID-19' tasks and the handling of the supplementary budget bill for emergency disaster relief payments during the April extraordinary session of the National Assembly.

First, Prime Minister Chung reported to President Moon on the domestic and international COVID-19 situation along with ▲the results of quarantine measures during the April 15 general election ▲the extension of social distancing ▲additional online school openings ▲and the status of international cooperation in the quarantine field.

In response, President Moon evaluated, "The general election was smoothly concluded thanks to thorough quarantine preparations and the active cooperation of the citizens who participated in voting," and said, "It is a meaningful achievement that voting rights were guaranteed even for confirmed and self-quarantined individuals during the COVID-19 situation, and the world is paying attention to our election management."

He also stated, "Since April 13, the number of new daily confirmed cases has been around 20, and since April 18, it has decreased to around 10," and expressed gratitude to the citizens for their cooperation with the strong social distancing measures.

However, he emphasized, "The pandemic continues, and many tasks remain to achieve a stable situation, so we must never be complacent," and added, "Thorough preparation is necessary for the phased transition to daily quarantine."

President Moon and Prime Minister Chung also discussed ways to systematize international cooperation in the quarantine field, such as the 'K-quarantine,' which has recently attracted attention from countries around the world.

President Moon mentioned, "As the international community focuses on our quarantine capabilities and achievements, leaders of various countries have shown great interest and continuously requested cooperation with us in the quarantine field through the Group of Twenty (G20), Korea-China-Japan ASEAN+3 video summit meetings, and others," and said, "It is important to establish a close cooperative system among related ministries to respond comprehensively and systematically to the increasing international demand."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Chung said, "Fundamental changes are expected across daily life, economy, and society after COVID-19," and shared opinions with President Moon on key tasks to find opportunities and achieve a leap forward amid these changes.

First, they agreed to utilize the 'Thursday Dialogue,' led by the Prime Minister, as a channel to gather diverse opinions from various sectors to identify urgent and necessary tasks, and to prepare specific implementation plans through a government-wide task force (TF) involving related ministries and actively promote them.

Finally, for the April extraordinary session of the 20th National Assembly, which is the last session, the government will closely cooperate with both ruling and opposition parties for the prompt passage of the supplementary budget bill for emergency disaster relief payments and actively cooperate in handling urgent livelihood bills such as those related to the 'Nth Room case.'

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