Government "Social Distancing to be Announced on 18th... Need to Maintain Quarantine Pass"

When Comparing Cost-Effectiveness for Minimizing Severe Cases and Deaths,
the Quarantine Pass Outperforms Social Distancing

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young]The government will announce adjustments to social distancing measures on the 18th. While there is a sentiment toward easing social distancing measures, there is a stance that the quarantine pass needs to be maintained a bit longer.

On the 15th, Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Division at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, stated at a regular briefing that the goal is to announce the adjustment plan for social distancing on the 18th, adding, "We are gathering opinions from experts across various fields, including members of the Recovery Support Committee."

He explained, "Since we also need to decide how much social and economic damage to tolerate depending on changes in the characteristics of the outbreak due to the dominance of the Omicron variant, we are listening to diverse opinions."

Earlier, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum appeared on KBS Emergency Diagnosis the previous day and said regarding social distancing, "We plan to reach a conclusion within this week," adding, "We will make a judgment between measures that relieve the burden on small business owners and self-employed individuals while not fueling the spread of Omicron."

Regarding the quarantine pass, Mr. Son said, "Considering the cost-effectiveness to achieve the policy goal of minimizing severe cases and deaths, I believe the quarantine pass needs to be maintained a bit longer than social distancing."

He said, "The quarantine pass focuses on preventing infections among the unvaccinated and transmission caused by them. The vaccination completion rate for those aged 18 and over, who are subject to the quarantine pass, is currently about 96%, so those inconvenienced by the quarantine pass are the unvaccinated, about 4% of adults."

He added, "In the past eight weeks, 62% of severe cases and 66.5% of deaths were among the unvaccinated," emphasizing, "Blocking infections and transmission caused by the unvaccinated is currently an important target to minimize severe and fatal damage, and how to protect the 4% unvaccinated remains a major issue."

However, Mr. Son left room for adjustment, saying, "We will continue to review whether partial adjustments are necessary while observing the overall restructuring of the quarantine system and the current outbreak situation."

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