Jeju Island Extends Social Distancing Level 2+α for 2 More Weeks... Until the 17th

Ban on Gatherings of 5 or More and 5 Types of Entertainment Facilities Maintained

Enhanced Quarantine Measures for Each Facility Including Holder Pubs, Kids Cafes, and Giwon

Golf Courses Allow 3 People Including Caddies, 4 Without Caddies On

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Chang-won] Jeju Special Self-Governing Province announced on the 2nd that it will apply additional guidelines to the existing social distancing level 2 and extend the period by two more weeks until the 17th.

The extension of Jeju-type social distancing level 2 plus alpha was decided in active participation with the nationwide extension of social distancing level 2, considering that the key indicator for escalation, the average daily number of confirmed cases over one week (from December 26, 2020, to January 1, 2021), was 8.57, meeting the level 2 standard (10 cases).

In particular, Jeju Province weighed maintaining the current measures due to concerns that a repeated explosive outbreak in December could overwhelm local medical and epidemiological investigation capacities, the recent trend of decreasing confirmed cases but the persistent possibility of cluster infections, and the judgment that this could be a turning point to firmly curb the spread before complete treatments and vaccines are available.

The current Jeju-type social distancing level 2 plus alpha (+α) measures focus on ▲ maintaining restrictions on private gatherings of five or more people ▲ extending existing special quarantine measures ▲ actively identifying blind spots in quarantine. Therefore, bans on private gatherings, dinners, and parties of five or more people, including in restaurants, remain in place.

Private gatherings refer to all collective activities where five or more people with the same purpose (such as socializing) gather at the same place and time. Typical examples include alumni meetings, clubs, picnics, workplace dinners (excluding unavoidable lunch or dinner during working hours), workshops, training sessions, savings clubs, housewarmings, year-end parties, first birthday parties, 60th and 70th birthday celebrations, and online cafe meetups.

Especially at golf courses in Jeju, play is limited to four or fewer people including caddies or four or fewer players without caddies ("No caddy"). Jeju Province maintains existing measures regardless of authoritative interpretations regarding whether four-person play including caddies is allowed.

However, the ban on private gatherings of five or more people has exceptions only for families (limited to those with the same resident registration address or direct relatives), weddings and funerals, essential official duties, or corporate management activities.

The main contents of the existing Jeju-type social distancing level 2 and the year-end and New Year special quarantine measures are also extended.

For example, five types of entertainment facilities, holder pubs, party rooms, and bathhouses are banned from gathering for two weeks. For religious facilities, existing regular worship services, masses, Buddhist ceremonies, and memorial services are conducted non-face-to-face, and gatherings, events, meals, and accommodations hosted by religious facilities remain prohibited.

However, national and public cultural and tourism facilities and parks, which are temporarily suspended until the 3rd, will operate under the principle of limiting capacity to 30% or less. Also, lodging facilities that previously limited reservations and occupancy to half (50%) of total rooms will adjust the limit to two-thirds.

Customized on-site measures will also be taken for quarantine blind spots.

Facilities registered as medical device businesses but operating as jjimjilbang-style (Korean sauna) rather than bathhouses will be subject to gathering bans equivalent to bathhouses, considering the characteristics of the three Cs (close contact, closed spaces, crowded places) and their high vulnerability to infectious diseases. Holder pubs and party rooms will be additionally designated as priority management facilities due to their gathering ban status.

Kids cafes, mainly used by children vulnerable to infectious diseases, will be included as general management facilities and subject to quarantine rules such as capacity limits and prohibition of food consumption (limited to one person per 4㎡ of facility area). Facilities promoting sales through free trials under medical device sales registration will be subject to strengthened quarantine measures similar to direct sales promotion centers.

Baduk (Go) centers will undergo customized quarantine management equivalent to indoor sports facilities. Complex convenience facilities within apartments will be ordered to suspend operations, and traditional markets will prohibit food tasting and sampling. Town offices and community centers will suspend cultural and educational programs.

The provincial quarantine authorities emphasized that the extension of social distancing level 2 is an unavoidable measure as it represents the last chance to firmly curb the spread of COVID-19 in the province before complete treatments and vaccines become available.

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