President Moon: "All-Government Task Force for COVID-19 Response and Livelihood Stability" (Comprehensive)

President-led Cheongwadae Senior Secretary Meeting... "Calming the COVID Situation Is Most Important"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] On the 9th, President Moon Jae-in presided over the senior secretaries and aides meeting at the Blue House and stated, "The government should renew its determination as the last bastion protecting the lives of the people and engage in a whole-of-government effort to respond to COVID-19 and stabilize people’s livelihoods."

President Moon said, "There are concerns that the spread of COVID-19 and strengthened social distancing measures might hinder the recovery trend of our economy. Economic sentiment, which had been improving for several months, has stalled, and the improving employment recovery trend has slowed again. Stabilizing prices for ordinary citizens is also a very important task for the livelihood economy."

President Moon expressed, "It is very regrettable that the spread of COVID-19 is not easily subsiding and that the strengthened social distancing phase has been extended," but he also evaluated, "Although the high-intensity quarantine measures implemented so far have not stopped the spread, they have clearly been effective in blocking a rapid surge."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

President Moon conveyed the global COVID-19 spread situation and explained, "Thanks to the cooperation of our people, we were able to raise the level and tension of quarantine to the highest and manage COVID-19 within our quarantine and medical system."

However, President Moon emphasized, "The future is the problem. A critical turning point still continues. There are only two ways we can protect the lives and safety of the people now. One is to do our utmost to block the spread of COVID-19, and the other is to increase the vaccination rate."

President Moon said, "First of all, calming the COVID-19 situation is more important than anything else. Especially ahead of the second semester school opening, we must tighten the reins of quarantine even more to ensure the safe return of children to in-person classes."

President Moon explained, "Increasing the vaccination rate is also very important. Recently, vaccination has accelerated again, with more than 40% of the people having completed the first dose, and we are moving toward the goal of vaccinating 36 million people before Chuseok."

President Moon pledged, "Because we have no choice but to rely on a few overseas companies for vaccines, we cannot freely manage vaccine supply, but we will make the best use of the secured vaccine quantities to surely expedite achieving our goals."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

President Moon added, "We will accelerate the development of domestic vaccines so as not to be swayed by overseas companies and concentrate national capabilities on vigorously promoting the global hub strategy."

President Moon stated that high-intensity quarantine measures are emergency measures that can only be used temporarily in the short term and are not sustainable. He said, "Only by controlling the spread of COVID-19 while simultaneously increasing the vaccination rate can we ease high-intensity quarantine measures," and predicted, "We may also pursue a new quarantine strategy that protects quarantine, the economy, and people’s livelihoods all at once."

Furthermore, President Moon said, "The most regrettable thing is that as high-intensity quarantine measures are extended, small business owners and self-employed people are being pushed to the brink of survival," and urged, "I hope society as a whole recognizes this as a heavy burden that must be shared together."

President Moon said, "The government will do its best to quickly support damages through supplementary budget execution starting next week and devise multifaceted support measures to alleviate financial burdens and difficulties," and added, "I hope local governments actively support by providing necessary information and data for their support projects."

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