Gwangju City Issues Administrative Order Effectively Equivalent to Social Distancing Level 3

Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "Actively Considering Raising Measures Depending on Regional Infection Spread Over 2-3 Days"

Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong-seop is announcing the results of the COVID-19 Public-Private Joint Countermeasures Committee meeting on the morning of the 27th at the city hall briefing room. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City issued an administrative order on the 27th that is effectively equivalent to Level 3.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop of Gwangju announced the results of an emergency meeting of the COVID-19 Public-Private Joint Countermeasures Committee on the morning of the same day, stating, “While maintaining social distancing at Level 2, we will take measures such as expanding the ban on gatherings that are effectively equivalent to Level 3.”

Mayor Lee explained, “54 confirmed cases (53 local infections) occurred in Gwangju the previous day,” adding, “This is the largest number of cases since the first confirmed case in Gwangju on February 3.”

He continued, “Among the 54 cases, 30 were from the Seongnim Baptist Church in Buk-gu, Gwangju (contact of Gwangju case 284), and 10 were from the Donggwangju Table Tennis Club (contact of Gwangju case 288),” adding, “More than half of the confirmed cases are asymptomatic, and the number of ‘unknown source’ or ‘dark’ cases is rapidly increasing, raising greater concerns about the spread of community infections.”

Accordingly, from 12:00 PM on the same day until 12:00 PM on September 10, Gwangju City will issue an administrative order banning gatherings at all religious facilities such as churches in the city. Only ‘non-face-to-face online religious activities’ will be allowed, and all other meetings and activities are strictly prohibited.

Additionally, an administrative order will be issued to ban gatherings at various indoor sports facilities, including university-operated gyms, group sports activities such as community sports clubs, and indoor group exercises; and major multi-use facilities with a high risk of cluster infections (amusement parks, game rooms/arcades, water parks, performance venues (musicals, plays), indoor sports facilities, casinos, bicycle racing, motorboat racing, horse racing venues, baseball and soccer stadiums, youth training centers, senior leisure facilities such as senior centers, underground bathhouses and saunas, underground multi-rooms and DVD rooms), which are currently subject to gathering restrictions.

For academies, kids cafes, model houses, and other facilities with fewer than 300 people currently under gathering restrictions, the ban on gatherings will be strengthened to prohibit groups of 10 or more.

The city plans to respond strongly by filing charges without any leniency against violations of the administrative order under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act (fines up to 3 million KRW), and will claim compensation (subrogation rights) for hospitalization, treatment, and quarantine costs if confirmed cases occur.

Mayor Lee emphasized, “The local COVID-19 infection situation is critical enough to actively consider raising social distancing to Level 3,” adding, “If raised to Level 3, all events and gatherings of 10 or more people will be banned, all restaurants will have to close, and effectively all citizen activities will be suspended. Urban functions will stop, causing economic and social damage that will be difficult to recover from for a considerable period.”

He added, “The quarantine authorities will closely monitor the trend of local infection spread over the next 2 to 3 days and will actively consider raising to Level 3 immediately if the situation worsens.”

Meanwhile, Gwangju City currently has a list of 222 participants from the Gwanghwamun rally, but 29 of them are unreachable. The city is continuing tracking investigations with police cooperation.

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