707 Cases and 4,592 People Caught at Illegal Entertainment Venues in 'Quarantine Blind Spots' Over 8 Weeks

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] Illegal operations of entertainment facilities continue amid the spread of COVID-19.

According to the National Police Agency on the 23rd, the police deployed 27,497 officers over eight weeks from the 3rd of last month to the 29th of this month, conducting joint inspections with local governments on 63,841 entertainment facilities nationwide. During this process, they cracked down on 707 cases of illegal activities involving 4,592 people, including violations of quarantine guidelines.

By type, there were 485 cases involving 4,013 people violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, 30 cases involving 370 people violating the Food Sanitation Act, and 192 cases involving 209 people violating the Music Industry Act.

In Seoul, on the 26th at around 11 p.m., 52 people including business owners and customers were caught at a general restaurant in Gangnam-gu that employed entertainment workers to operate illegally. In Incheon, on the 25th at 11:50 p.m., an entertainment bar in Gyeyang-gu was caught by police while secretly operating with its sign lights off. Additionally, on the 22nd at 11:10 p.m., 20 people including the owner and customers were caught at an entertainment bar in Cheongju, Chungbuk.

The police plan to continue focused crackdowns on violations of quarantine rules at entertainment facilities, unauthorized operations, and reoperations of violating businesses.

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