Prime Minister Kim: "Fifth Day of Strengthened Quarantine, Infections Persist... Social Distancing Effects Need More Time"

COVID-19 Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum is speaking at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (CDSCH) meeting on COVID-19 response held at the Government Seoul Office on the 27th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said on the 27th, "It has been five days since the enhanced quarantine measures were implemented, but the number of confirmed cases has not clearly decreased yet," adding, "It seems that more time is needed for the social distancing effects to appear."

On the morning of the same day, Prime Minister Kim presided over the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting at the Government Seoul Office and said, "Please have confidence that we ourselves are doing our best in quarantine."

Although the government has been implementing Level 4 social distancing in the metropolitan area and Level 3 in non-metropolitan areas for two months, the daily number of new COVID-19 cases remains around 2,000 and is not decreasing. A significant number of new confirmed cases have been identified as caused by variant viruses, raising concerns that the effectiveness of vaccination and government quarantine measures is declining.

In response, Prime Minister Kim said, "Considering that countries with higher vaccination rates than ours are also experiencing a rapid increase in confirmed cases due to the Delta variant, the quarantine efforts that all citizens are currently participating in are definitely effective," and rebutted, "Experts also diagnose that 'if such high-intensity quarantine measures had not been in place, we would be facing a much more difficult situation than now.'"

He added, "If we consistently follow quarantine rules in daily life, we believe the fourth wave can be sufficiently overcome," and said, "The government will accelerate vaccination and focus more on quarantine to decisively curb the momentum of this wave." Furthermore, he encouraged participation in vaccination, stating, "Vaccination, together with strong social distancing, is the only solution to overcome this fourth wave." Regarding recent cases of vaccine misadministration, he apologized, saying, "We are sorry for causing concern to the public," and ordered the quarantine authorities to strengthen medical staff training.

Meanwhile, with an additional case of African Swine Fever (ASF) confirmed at a farm in Gangwon Province the day before, Prime Minister Kim said, "Despite emergency quarantine measures over the past three weeks, infections at pig farms continue to be confirmed," and urged, "The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs should thoroughly enforce quarantine at individual farms with the concerned local governments with utmost determination." He also added, "Please discuss measures such as reinforcing fences to block the movement of wild boars and strengthen wild boar capture activities."

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