Gyeongsan City Abruptly Raises Social Distancing to Level 2... 216 Confirmed Cases Surge in April

Ban on Gathering at 5 Types of Entertainment Facilities, Restaurants, Cafes, Singing Rooms, and Academies Restricted to 10 PM Operating Hours

Mayor Choi Young-jo of Gyeongsan City giving an emergency briefing on the 25th.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Jae-ho] Gyeongsan City, Gyeongbuk Province, announced on the 25th that it will raise social distancing from the current level 1.5 to level 2 from 5 a.m. on the 26th until May 2nd, in response to the recent sporadic cluster infections and the chain transmission of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Accordingly, wedding halls and funeral halls will be limited to one person per 4㎡ of facility area, and direct sales promotion centers such as door-to-door sales, as well as singing rooms, indoor standing concert halls, restaurants, cafes, bathhouses, indoor sports facilities, academies, and private institutes will have their operating hours restricted until 10 p.m.

In addition, five types of entertainment facilities including nightclubs, danran bars, emotional pubs, and colatecs, as well as holdem pubs, will be prohibited from gathering under the government's social distancing level 2 guidelines. Religious facilities will be restricted to gatherings within 20% of seating capacity only for regular worship services.

When a violation of quarantine rules is detected, a one-strike-out policy will be applied, immediately issuing a gathering ban order to the offending business, and if infections occur among users within the facility of the relevant industry, an administrative order banning gatherings for the entire industry will be issued.

In Gyeongsan City, as of midnight on the 25th of this month, 216 confirmed cases have occurred. This accounts for 17.8% of the total 1,215 confirmed cases in Gyeongsan City so far. The average daily number of confirmed cases over the past week has reached 8.6.

In particular, on the 1st and 9th of this month, the daily number of confirmed cases reached 23, and the number of confirmed cases has exceeded 10 for three consecutive days recently, showing no signs of the spread calming down.

At Church A, where a cluster infection occurred, a total of 48 confirmed cases followed, including 32 additional confirmed cases and 15 nth-generation infections after the first confirmed case on the 8th. At another Church B, after 2 confirmed cases on the 19th, 8 more were added the next day, increasing the cumulative confirmed cases to 10.

In entertainment facilities, after one worker was confirmed positive on the 15th, 14 people tested positive at singing rooms and entertainment pubs. In this regard, the quarantine authorities issued an administrative order for diagnostic testing for all managers and workers of entertainment facilities and singing rooms.

Mayor Choi Young-jo of Gyeongsan City explained in a briefing on the 25th, "Since the 19th, we have added one temporary screening clinic, operating a total of four screening clinics," and "We are conducting a 'PCR diagnostic test active recommendation campaign' for symptomatic individuals by distributing 50,000 PCR test information leaflets to local hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies."

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