Despite Severe COVID-19, Illegal Entertainment Groups' 'Quarantine Deviations' Serious...Will Government Revise Quarantine System?

Despite COVID-19 Spread, Violation of Quarantine Rules and Late-Night Business
Experts Warn of Serious COVID from Entertainment Venues: "Starting in Busan, Continuous Spread Feared"

Seoul City announced on the 11th that it had identified a total of 87 people, including owners and customers, who violated quarantine rules at two entertainment establishments in Gangnam-gu that operated illegally in defiance of the assembly ban order.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] The K-quarantine barrier has 'collapsed.' On the 11th, the number of new COVID-19 cases reached an all-time high of 2,223, followed by 1,987 cases reported as of midnight on the 12th. With no signs of the spread slowing down, there are concerns that the number could rise to between 3,000 and 4,000 in two weeks. The quarantine authorities are struggling as illegal entertainment establishments operating to evade crackdowns are also rampant.

On the 10th alone, the Seoul Metropolitan Government reported that it caught a total of 87 people, including owners and customers who violated quarantine rules, at two entertainment establishments. One of the establishments caught was an entertainment bar located in the basement level 1 of a hotel, where customers were secretly admitted through an underground passage. Among those caught there were 29 customers and employees who were drinking without masks, violating the gathering ban order.

The other establishment was a regular restaurant that was found to have been secretly operating as an entertainment bar without permission. The number of people caught at this bar, which operated by prior reservation, reached 58, including the owner and customers. Some employees were found hiding in a basement storage room of about 2 pyeong (approximately 7 square meters) to evade the crackdown.

Across the country, virus transmission originating from entertainment facilities continues unabated. The recent COVID-19 outbreak in Busan, where social distancing was recently raised to level 4, also started from a cluster infection linked to entertainment facilities that began on the 21st of last month. Due to the nature of the industry, it is difficult to trace employees and visitors, classifying entertainment facilities as high-risk COVID-19 locations.

In this regard, Professor Kim Jeong-gi of Korea University College of Pharmacy appeared on YTN's 'The News' and stated that measures must be established to prevent the operation of illegal entertainment facilities. He explained, "(The virus transmission through entertainment facilities) started in Busan and spread to Gyeongnam, and Daejeon has also continued to spread to Sejong and Chungbuk. The same applies to Jeju. In these cases, I think it would be appropriate to additionally impose administrative orders to ban operations of entertainment facilities."

On the 12th, citizens who visited the screening clinic set up at the Songpa-gu Public Health Center in Seoul are waiting to get tested. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang aymsdream@

Amid the severe spread, even vaccine supply has become precarious. As the domestic supply of the Moderna vaccine has been delayed, causing disruptions in the supply schedule, the quarantine authorities announced on the 9th that the interval between the first and second vaccine doses will be extended from 4 weeks to 6 weeks.

Given the situation, the government is carefully considering improvements to the current quarantine system. On the 11th, Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Division at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "The main cause of the increase in confirmed cases this week is the spread of infection through the holiday season. We are evaluating how much this impact will unfold and are considering changes to the social distancing system and quarantine measures."

However, strengthening quarantine measures prematurely is not easy. Repeated extensions of social distancing have increased public fatigue, and self-employed business owners are complaining of damages. Son, head of the Social Strategy Division, expressed a cautious stance, saying, "Strengthening social distancing measures can cause social and economic damage, so we are giving it considerable thought."

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