Gwangju City to Shift to Social Distancing Level 1 Starting from the 3rd

Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "In the With-Corona Era, Doing Our Best to Balance Quarantine and Daily Economic Activities"

On the afternoon of the 2nd, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, held an online briefing on COVID-19 at the city hall briefing room and announced the plan to downgrade social distancing from level 2 to level 1 starting from the 3rd. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City will downgrade social distancing from Level 2 to Level 1 starting from the 3rd.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop stated in a non-face-to-face online press conference on the 2nd, “When local infections occurred on June 27, we judged it as a second large-scale outbreak and immediately raised social distancing to Level 2. Thanks to the united efforts of 1.5 million citizens and quarantine authorities working as one team in a ‘simultaneous effort’ (줄탁동시), we were able to block the spread of local infections in just over a month.” He added, “I sincerely thank the citizens who overcame another crisis by coming together with the spirit of sharing and solidarity of Gwangju.”

With the transition to Level 1, various administrative measures will be lifted or standards relaxed.

First, the administrative order banning gatherings, meetings, and events of 50 or more people indoors and 100 or more people outdoors will be lifted.

Multi-use facilities operated by public institutions will also reopen.

However, quarantine rules must be followed, and libraries will operate with up to 30% of seating capacity, while performance venues such as Gwangju Culture and Arts Center and Gongyeonmaru will limit attendance to 50% of seating capacity.

Local daycare centers will resume normal operations from the 3rd, and senior centers will reopen from the 6th but meals will be prohibited, operating only as ‘heat relief shelters.’

Long-term care facilities for the elderly will allow limited visits under non-contact conditions such as installing partitions, and restrictions on staff visiting other facilities or contacting outsiders will be lifted.

Home shopping businesses in the area, which had been subject to gathering bans, will be converted to gathering restrictions allowing sales operations while mandatorily following quarantine rules.

However, gatherings and events of 50 or more people indoors and 100 or more people outdoors remain prohibited until further notice, with attendance limited to one person per 4 square meters.

University-operated gyms and various indoor sports facilities will reopen from the 3rd, and group sports activities such as community sports clubs and indoor group exercises will be allowed under conditions of wearing masks indoors and managing participant lists, lifting the gathering ban.

However, for high-risk facilities separately designated by Gwangju City (9 locations) in addition to government-designated high-risk facilities, administrative measures will remain in place until further notice considering the infection risk.

Religious facilities will be reclassified as ‘medium-risk facilities,’ but gathering restrictions with mandatory QR code scanning and compliance with quarantine rules will continue.

Gathering restrictions for PC rooms and academies (with fewer than 300 people) will be maintained as is until the 23rd, the students’ vacation period, with mandatory compliance to quarantine rules.

For high-risk underground facilities such as multi-rooms, DVD rooms, game centers, arcades, performance halls, bathhouses and saunas, indoor sports facilities, and funeral halls, quarantine rules and gathering restrictions will remain in effect until further notice.

Additionally, the mandatory wearing of masks on public transportation and when visiting multi-use facilities will continue as before.

The mayor emphasized, “With the easing to Level 1, opportunities for multiple contacts increase and close contact naturally rises, which inevitably raises the risk of virus infection. Citizens’ compliance with quarantine rules has become much more important than before.”

Along with this, Gwangju City plans to focus administrative efforts on balancing quarantine compliance with daily life and economic activities in preparation for the ‘With Corona’ era.

The mayor said, “While doing our best to build an airtight quarantine network as we have so far, we will also prepare and announce the 8th livelihood stabilization measures for vulnerable areas in urgent need of support as soon as possible.”

He added, “To solve citizens’ livelihood issues and revitalize the local economy, fundamentally, citizens’ jobs must increase and incomes must rise. We will accelerate the full-scale implementation of the Gwangju-type 3 Major New Deals to leap forward as a ‘global leading city’ that will lead the post-Corona era.”

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