Incorrect Guidance on Outing Time for Confirmed Cases in Some Areas... "Must Move from 5:50"

On the 9th, the day of the 20th presidential election, voters are casting their precious votes at Dohwa-dong 2nd polling station set up at Dohwa Toy Rental Store in Mapo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] COVID-19 confirmed patients and quarantined individuals who intend to participate in the 20th presidential election voting are allowed to go out from 5:50 PM on the 9th, but it has been confirmed that some local governments sent text messages stating that going out is allowed from 5:00 PM.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) stated on the day, "There were cases where some local governments sent messages using the pre-change standard text template, so we have once again notified them and requested correction and re-sending."

On this day, confirmed and quarantined individuals can go out from 5:50 PM to vote, and they vote between 6:00 PM and 7:30 PM after general voters have left. Only transportation-vulnerable people living in farming, mountainous, and fishing villages are allowed to go out from 5:30 PM.

Voting for confirmed and quarantined individuals was also allowed on the second day of early voting on the 5th, but at that time, going out was permitted from 5:00 PM, before the general voters finished voting. It appears that confusion occurred because some local governments sent the guidance messages created at that time directly to the confirmed and quarantined individuals on this day.

The KDCA set the going-out time for confirmed and quarantined individuals at 5:50 PM on this day, considering the congestion at polling stations on the 5th when general voters and confirmed/quarantined individuals crowded together. However, when announcing the going-out time on the 7th, the KDCA initially said "after 5:30 PM" but later delayed it by 20 minutes to "after 5:50 PM" in the evening.

A KDCA official explained, "The National Election Commission requested a change in time to separate the movement paths of general voters and confirmed patients and to minimize waiting times for quarantined individuals, so we made this change," and added, "The standard text message for going-out guidance, including changes such as the allowed going-out time for confirmed and quarantined voters, was re-notified nationwide to cities, provinces, counties, districts, and related organizations on the 7th."

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