<중대본>, Emergency Briefing Tomorrow... Likely Announcement of Raising 'Level 1.5' in Seoul Metropolitan Area and Gangwon

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] The government is expected to officially announce on the 17th the plan to raise the 'social distancing' level to 1.5 in the Seoul metropolitan area and Gangwon region, where signs of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) spread have recently appeared.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) on the 16th, Park Neung-hoo, the first deputy head of CDSCH (Minister of Health and Welfare), will hold a COVID-19 response briefing at 11:30 a.m. on the 17th at the Government Seoul Office.

Considering that CDSCH has explained the COVID-19 outbreak status and quarantine response through briefings every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, it is expected that on this day they will announce raising the social distancing level in the Seoul metropolitan area and Gangwon region from level 1 to 1.5.

The government is currently reported to be in the final coordination process with related ministries and local governments regarding the plan to raise the social distancing level in these two regions starting at 0:00 on the 19th.

Earlier, the government issued a 'preliminary alert' indicating the possibility of raising the level to 1.5 in the Seoul metropolitan area and Gangwon region.

Recently, the Seoul metropolitan area and Gangwon region have shown increasingly clear signs of COVID-19 infection spread.

From the 10th of this month to the 16th, the number of locally transmitted confirmed cases in the Seoul metropolitan area increased daily from 53 to 128. The daily average number of new confirmed cases is 99.4. This is close to the 1.5 level criteria for social distancing (100 or more cases in the Seoul metropolitan area).

In the case of the Gangwon region, the average daily confirmed cases over the past week from the 10th to the 16th were 13.9, which already falls within the 1.5 level range (10 or more cases in Gangwon and Jeju).

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