[Q&A] Golden Holiday: If Travel Is Unavoidable... No Group Trips, Only With Cohabiting Family Members

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy, reporter Cho Hyunui] The government will release a draft of quarantine guidelines for social distancing in daily life starting April 22.

Yoon Taeho, Head of the Central Disaster Management Headquarters' Quarantine General Division, announced at a regular briefing held at the Government Complex Sejong on the morning of April 21, "We will sequentially release the quarantine guidelines for preparing to implement social distancing in daily life so that people can learn them in advance and try applying them in real life."

On April 22, the government will unveil a draft of the basic rules for individuals and groups, and on April 24, it will release drafts of detailed guidelines for various types of environments or facilities frequently encountered in daily life. Yoon explained, "We plan to finalize and distribute these guidelines after collecting feedback from stakeholders and reviewing them through the Living Quarantine Committee."

To ensure the smooth implementation of follow-up measures to social distancing, the government will establish dedicated teams within each ministry and local government, and discuss institutional support measures through an inter-ministerial task force (TF).

In addition, the government plans to promote an amendment to the "Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act" to allow for the imposition of administrative fines and other enforcement measures if individuals or organizations fail to comply with the basic requirements.

◇ The following is a Q&A session with Yoon Taeho, Head of the Quarantine General Division, regarding social distancing in daily life

- Major luxury hotels in regions such as Gangwon Province and Jeju Island are fully booked during the upcoming golden holiday period. What is your response?

▲ The extended holiday period is a key reason why the government decided to prolong social distancing until May 5. Please recognize the seriousness of the current situation once again. We ask that you refrain from traveling as much as possible and avoid group trips. Even for family gatherings, please keep them limited to cohabiting family members. If travel is unavoidable, be sure to practice physical distancing. Although the number of confirmed cases in Gangwon Province and Jeju Island is relatively low, if travel increases, the possibility of confirmed cases emerging in the local community always exists.

- You mentioned introducing administrative fines through an amendment to the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act to enforce compliance with the basic requirements. Will individuals be fined if they violate quarantine rules?

▲ We are currently reviewing how and to whom individual fines will be imposed. Once the review is complete, the proposal will be submitted to the National Assembly, and the details will naturally become public during the legislative process. The basic difference between fines and penalties is that penalties require a judicial decision, which takes a considerable amount of time. Fines, on the other hand, are administrative measures similar to traffic tickets, allowing for swift action.

- In addition to fines, the Vice Minister mentioned incentives yesterday. Is it possible under the current legal system to grant benefits for complying with the law? If a legal amendment is required and is proposed after June, when can we expect implementation?

▲ We are currently discussing what forms of incentives to introduce and how to incorporate them into law. Once the discussions are finalized, we will provide further details. I believe there could be various incentive schemes, such as certification systems.

If a provisional session of the National Assembly is held in May, we are initially considering reflecting the changes through a prompt legal amendment. If that is not feasible, we will submit a bill for legal amendment as soon as the new National Assembly is formed, so that it can proceed without delay.

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