SEOUL: South Korea’s prime minister says it’s "inevitable" that social-distancing measures will be tightened to the strictest level unless the country’s coronavirus outbreak can be contained.
Chung Sye-Kyun made the comment on Saturday as a record 950 cases were reported, of which 928 were local infections. That was despite restrictions at the second-highest level of 2.5 out of a scale of 3 in the greater Seoul area since Tuesday.
If the spread continues, the government will have no choice but raise measures to Level 3, Chung said, urging that efforts be made to curb the spread to reduce the impact that tighter limits would have on the economy and society.
On his Facebook account, President Moon Jae-in referred to the Covid-19 situation as an “emergency” and ordered the mobilisation of all resources to contain the virus.
South Korea had been praised and emulated for its earlier success in slowing the spread of the virus spread without a lockdown, relying instead on rapid testing and contact-tracing to reduce flareups.
Under Level 3 restrictions, gatherings of 10 people or more are prohibited, including all sporting events, while schools can only offer online classes. The public is advised to stay at home as much as possible, and companies are required to have non-essential employees work from home.
There are no travel restrictions, although foreign visitors must be quarantined for 14 days unless they are exempt under cross-border agreements.
The country in November modified its social-distancing system with a five-tier system that intensifies restrictions according to the severity of the outbreak. Level 3 is adopted when an “extreme” spike in locally transmitted infections sparks a large-scale, nationwide outbreak, or when daily cases reach 800 or more, according to the Korea Disease Control & Prevention Agency.
The outlook is also worsening in Japan, where Tokyo confirmed a record 621 cases on Saturday. The figure surpassed the previous record of 602 set on Thursday.
Tokyo started to see the number of cases rise sharply in mid-November and is the hardest-hit among the country’s 47 prefectures with over 46,000 cases confirmed to date.
In most areas of the Japanese capital, restaurants, bars and karaoke establishments that serve alcohol have been asked to shorten their business hours and close at 10pm.
The recent surge has raised the alarm about increasingly stretched healthcare systems in some areas hit hard by the pandemic. For example, the Self-Defense Forces has dispatched nurses to a city in Hokkaido that is facing a shortage of medical staff to treat Covid patients.
A panel of medical experts on Friday urged the central government to halt a subsidy programme to spur domestic travel in areas where medical systems are under strain. The administration of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has been reluctant to roll back the programme as it seeks to balance supporting the economy and fighting the virus.
Yukio Edano, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, said the “Go To Travel” subsidy programme “needs to be suspended as soon as possible” to help arrest the spread of the virus.
