Indoor Mask Mandate Lift Criteria Decided... Must Wear for the Time Being (Comprehensive)

Meeting 1 of 4 Criteria
Discussion on Lifting When 2 or More Are Met

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is presiding over the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on COVID-19 held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 23rd. The government will finalize and announce the indoor mask mandate adjustment plan following this meeting. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy reporters Ki-min Lee and Kwan-joo Lee] It appears that masks will need to be worn indoors for the time being. Although masks can be removed if two or more of the four government-set conditions are met, currently only one condition is satisfied.

On the 23rd, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo stated at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (CDSCH) meeting regarding the easing of indoor mask-wearing mandates that if two or more of the four adjustment criteria are met, the CDSCH will discuss and decide on the timing of implementation.

The criteria for determining the timing of easing the mask mandate are: ▲ stabilization of patient cases ▲ reduction in critically ill patients and deaths ▲ stable medical response capacity ▲ immunity acquisition among high-risk groups. At present, except for the criterion of ‘stable medical response capacity,’ none of the other criteria have been met. However, if only one condition is met, mask-wearing indoors will be recommended rather than mandatory, except in medical and infection-vulnerable facilities and public transportation.

In the second phase, when the COVID-19 crisis level is lowered (from severe to caution or alert) or the legal infectious disease classification is adjusted (from level 2 to level 4), mask-wearing will be recommended in most places except for some locations. Given the current increase in confirmed cases and critically ill patients due to the winter resurgence of COVID-19, it is expected that the situation will be monitored for some time before a specific implementation date is decided.

Prime Minister Han noted that with the winter resurgence of COVID-19, if the indoor mask mandate is eased, there is a high possibility of a temporary increase in confirmed cases, and he urged vaccination for the immunocompromised.

He also expressed gratitude to the public for cooperating with mask-wearing despite the inconvenience for nearly three years since the outbreak of COVID-19, and asked for continued cooperation to ensure that the quarantine situation stabilizes enough to ease the mask mandate.

On the day, the number of new COVID-19 cases was 68,168, an increase of 1,215 from 7 days earlier on the 16th, indicating that the outbreak continues. The number of critically ill patients remained in the 500s for the sixth consecutive day at 530.

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