Military Personnel Leave Resumes Normally After 76 Days (Comprehensive)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu Reporter] Military personnel leave will be fully reinstated starting from the 8th. This comes 76 days after the military began restricting all personnel from going out on February 22 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

On the 4th, the Ministry of National Defense announced that in line with the government's transition to 'distancing in daily life,' military leave will be fully implemented from the 8th. Overnight stays and visits will be gradually resumed later, considering the occurrence of COVID-19 cases within the military and trends of community infections. Meanwhile, outings for officers, which had been restricted, will also be conducted normally.

However, key personnel such as those working in command and control rooms and major power operation staff will implement quarantine measures to ensure there are no issues in maintaining military readiness.

The Ministry of National Defense has controlled all military personnel's leave, outings, and visits since February 22, immediately after the first confirmed case within the military. Since no new cases have occurred within the military after March 22 and the spread of COVID-19 inside and outside the military has eased recently, partial outings were allowed from the 24th of last month, but decisions on leave, overnight stays, and visits were deferred.

The Ministry explained that the decision was based on the fact that no additional confirmed cases occurred within the military after outings were allowed, daily confirmed cases nationwide have stabilized around 10, and especially that community infections within the country are almost nonexistent.

The Ministry of National Defense added, "Considering the nature of military service involving group living, the military proactively implemented a higher level of intensive social distancing than government standards. Despite the results, prolonged intensive restrictions increased stress among personnel, making unit management more difficult, which led to prioritizing outings."

Earlier, the government held a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on the 3rd and decided to end social distancing from the 6th and transition to a quarantine system for daily life, the 'distancing in daily life' phase.

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