Countries Abroad That Removed Masks First... When Did They Take Them Off?

Singapore lifted mandatory measures around the same time as recent domestic situation
New Zealand and France had more confirmed cases than our country at that time

On the 29th, a citizen was seen walking through downtown Seoul holding a mask in their hand. The government announced at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on the same day that the outdoor mask mandate will be lifted starting May 2. However, the mask-wearing requirement will remain in place for gatherings of 50 or more people, such as assemblies, events, performances, and sports game viewings, where the risk of infection is high due to crowd density and shouting. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] From the 2nd of next month, the outdoor mask-wearing mandate will be significantly lifted. Outdoors, the mask-wearing mandate will apply to gatherings of 50 or more people, spectators at performances and sports events, and masks must also be worn when using public transportation. Countries overseas where the Omicron wave has passed its peak are also trending toward removing masks both indoors and outdoors.

Singapore recently lifted the outdoor mask mandate under conditions similar to the scale of new domestic cases. On the 29th of last month, when Singapore lifted the measure, the weekly number of confirmed cases per 1 million people was 9,503. As of the 30th, South Korea’s weekly confirmed cases per 1 million people stood at 8,560.

New Zealand and France allowed the removal of masks outdoors when their case numbers were higher than South Korea’s. On February 2nd, when France began lifting the outdoor mandate, the weekly confirmed cases per 1 million people were 31,783. New Zealand lifted the outdoor mandate on the 4th with 17,508 cases per 1 million people, approximately 3.7 times and 2.0 times higher than South Korea, respectively.

In these countries, the trend of decreasing confirmed cases continued even after lifting the mask mandate. According to Worldometer on the 30th, the recent weekly confirmed cases per 1 million people were 3,093 in Singapore, 6,583 in France, and 10,647 in New Zealand, all lower than when the outdoor mandates were lifted.

Currently, countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan have no outdoor mask mandates. The UK and Japan do not require masks indoors either, while Germany and France do not mandate indoor mask-wearing except in certain places like public transportation and medical institutions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) consider the likelihood of infection transmission outdoors to be lower than indoors and recommend outdoor mask-wearing based on physical distancing. According to WHO, masks are recommended when individuals cannot maintain a 1-meter distance from others excluding family members. ECDC recommends mask-wearing in crowded indoor spaces where physical distancing is not possible. Previously, in South Korea, masks were mandatory outdoors if a 2-meter distance between people could not be maintained.

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