Heo Ji-woong "Quarantine Pass Fine, 1.5 Million Won for Business Owners? ... A Failed Quarantine Measure"

"Religious Facilities Habitually Breaching Quarantine Measures... Excluded from Quarantine Pass"

Broadcaster Heo Ji-woong. / Photo by Heo Ji-woong Instagram capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] Broadcaster Heo Ji-woong claimed that the government's quarantine pass (vaccination certificate, PCR negative confirmation) guidelines impose excessive obligations on business owners and are unfair.

On the 13th, Heo said on SBS Radio's 'Heo Ji-woong Show,' "The one-week grace period for the quarantine pass has ended. From today, without a quarantine pass, you cannot enter restaurants or cafes."

He continued, "However, the penalty standards for violations are strange. Facility users are fined 100,000 KRW per instance, but business owners (operators) face fines of 1.5 million KRW for the first offense and 3 million KRW from the second offense onward, and there can even be orders to suspend or close the facility."

He added, "A few days ago during the broadcast, there was a story about someone working at a convenience store who asked a customer to wear a mask and was met with insults and abusive language," and said, "It is very common for people to get angry when asked to wear a mask or to cause disturbances by not scanning the quarantine pass."

He then said, "How often do business owners, who must protect their own businesses, intentionally refuse to cooperate with quarantine measures?" and criticized, "The responsibility keeps being excessively placed only on business owners, while the actual violators are not held similarly accountable. I said that quarantine measures that fail to give those who comply a sense of pride for contributing to the community are bound to fail, but it seems nothing has changed."

Meanwhile, Heo also pointed out that religious facilities are exempt from the quarantine pass obligation. He said, "It is those who do not comply and facilities that have habitually created gaps in quarantine measures that reign over common sense and fairness."

He added, "The goodwill of people who have tried to protect their families and neighbors for two years is openly trampled upon, and our administrative system is deliberately neglecting this."

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