Restrictions Lifted at Hangang Park but Eating Still 'NO'... Greater Seoul Area Effectively at 'Level 1.5'

Social Distancing Eased to 'Level 1' from Today
'Break Time System' Implemented in Dance Entertainment Venues
Seoul City Center Maintains Ban on Gatherings of 10 or More
Ministry of National Defense Normalizes Leave for All Military Personnel

97 New Cases on First Day of Easing, Worrying Increase
Monitoring Sporadic Infections and Impact of October Holidays

On the 12th, the phrase "Thank you all for overcoming COVID-19 together!" was inscribed at Seoul Plaza. On the 11th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will carry out the campaign "Thank You!" to comfort citizens exhausted by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and to express gratitude and support to citizens actively participating in the guidelines of the government and local authorities. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy reporters Jo In-kyung and Jo Hyun-ui] Restrictions on Yeouido and Ttukseom and Banpo Hangang Parks will be lifted starting from the 12th. The ban on gatherings of 10 or more people will also be relaxed to gatherings of 100 or more. The Ministry of National Defense has also normalized soldiers' leave, which had been restricted until now.

Seo Jeong-hyeop, Acting Mayor of Seoul, announced new quarantine guidelines applied to the Seoul area starting at midnight on the same day. This is a follow-up measure after the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) eased the social distancing level from level 2 to level 1 starting that day. Although the control of crowded areas in Hangang Parks (Yeouido, Ttukseom, Banpo) will be lifted, the Seoul city government requested that "masks must be worn inside the parks and that drinking, eating, and delivery orders be refrained from."

◆Ban on Door-to-Door Sales and 30-Minute Rest Time System = The ban on gatherings of 10 or more people, which was imposed throughout Seoul, will end, but the 'ban on gatherings of 10 or more' will remain in place in downtown Seoul as before. A separate ban on gatherings of 100 or more people will be implemented throughout Seoul. After a rapid increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases following the Liberation Day downtown rallies, Seoul had completely banned gatherings of 10 or more people citywide from August 21 and decided to maintain this ban until midnight on the 11th, considering quarantine during the Chuseok holiday and Hangul Day holiday periods.

However, Seoul will maintain the existing measures of assembly bans and closure recommendations for door-to-door sales and direct sales promotion centers, as well as senior day and night care facilities, which have a high proportion of elderly users and a history of cluster infections. Daycare centers will be considered for reopening after the incubation period following the Chuseok holiday ends on the 19th. However, social welfare facilities such as welfare centers, senior centers, and day care centers for the disabled may resume operations after thoroughly establishing facility-specific quarantine plans.

Seoul has also established its own rules that are stricter than the central government’s. Although the ban on gatherings at entertainment facilities is lifted, considering the risk, entertainment venues where dancing occurs?such as clubs, emotional pubs, and colatecs?will be subject to an additional 'rest time system' rule, requiring 10 minutes of rest per hour or 30 minutes of rest every 3 hours.

On the 12th, when the social distancing level was eased to Level 1, students were attending classes at Jongno Academy Gangnam Main Branch in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, where large academies resumed operations. With the easing measures implemented from this day, 'high-risk facilities' such as entertainment bars, karaoke rooms, large academies, and buffet restaurants in the metropolitan area, which had been restricted from operating, have reopened. However, in the metropolitan area, gatherings and events with more than 50 people indoors or 100 people outdoors are still advised to be avoided, and some facilities are required to comply with core quarantine rules, maintaining measures equivalent to Level 2 in part. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

◆97 Confirmed Cases on the Day... Effectively Level 1.5 = The 'social distancing' applied nationwide from this day is effectively level 1.5. Since the spread in the metropolitan area is not yet at a reassuring level, some measures equivalent to level 2 are maintained, and measures above level 1 are applied in non-metropolitan areas as well.

The ban on gatherings is lifted for 10 high-risk facilities nationwide, excluding door-to-door sales facilities, including large academies with 300 or more people, singing rooms, clubs, buffets, and entertainment pubs. Churches in the metropolitan area are allowed to hold in-person services with up to 30% of the seating capacity in the worship hall, while churches in non-metropolitan areas will decide implementation policies by local governments based on regional situations, similar to level 2. For sports events, attendance is allowed up to 30% capacity for spectator-free games, and national and public facilities can allow up to 50% capacity indoors, lifting the suspension of indoor facility operations.

The government decided to implement level 1.5, which is looser than level 2 but stricter than level 1, based on the judgment that the situation is not yet safe. As of midnight on the day, 97 new confirmed cases were reported, marking five consecutive days of double-digit new cases. The average daily new cases over the past two weeks is 71.1, which does not meet the government's level 1 social distancing criterion of 'an average of fewer than 50 cases over two weeks.' The proportion of cases with unknown infection routes, another level 1 criterion, is 19.8%, about four times higher than the 5% threshold, indicating ongoing concerns.

Park Neung-hoo, the first deputy head of the CDSCH, said, "Considering the accumulated fatigue of the public from about two months of strengthened social distancing and the negative impact on the livelihood economy such as the burden on self-employed people, sporadic cluster infections are occurring in several regions. We also need to observe a little longer how the effects of the Chuseok and October holidays will manifest."

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