Tug of war over outdoor mask rule

Social Affairs

Published: 27 Apr. 2022, 18:31

Tug of war over outdoor mask rule

Ahn Cheol-soo, chief of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition team, announces a 100-day roadmap to cope with the pandemic at the committee's office in Seoul on Wednesday. [POOL PHOTO]

The outdoor mask-wearing rule could be lifted soon — or not so soon.

In a briefing on Wednesday, health authorities said they will make a decision on whether to lift the outdoor mask requirement this Friday.

On the same day, however, a Covid-19 Emergency Task Force run by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's transition team unveiled a 100-day roadmap for Covid-19 response measures. It suggested the outdoor mask rule could be lifted within 30 days of Yoon’s inauguration on May 10 — in other words, at the end of next month.

Yoon’s transition team has repeatedly expressed concerns about dropping the outdoor mask mandate and giving the wrong signal to the public that the pandemic is over.

“We are going to make a decision [on lifting the outdoor mask mandate] based on the situation in late May,” Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the transition team, said in a press conference Wednesday. “We believe it will be made possible once the number of new infections comes down to the level of [when] developed nations abroad lifted their outdoor mask rules.”

The indoor mask rule will be kept for a while, Ahn added.

Son Young-rae, senior epidemiological strategist at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, said in a regular press briefing on Wednesday that authorities “haven’t yet grasped the announcement made by the transition team,” while adding that they believe “the direction of the policies is not that different.

“We will make a decision after comprehensively reviewing different opinions, including those presented by the transition team,” Son added.

Still, authorities say the risk of more Covid transmissions from the lift of the outdoor mask-wearing rule is very low from a scientific viewpoint.

"The possibility and risk of transmission are significantly lower than indoors, so the need for maintenance is lower than indoors," Son said. "We understand that the transition team is concerned about changes in public behavior and confusion over the social message, but it is a matter to be judged comprehensively."

The Korean Medical Association’s Expert Covid-19 Response Committee wrote in a public advisory released Tuesday that ending the outdoor mask rule is a bad idea, and if it happens, the country “should prepare for a resurgence of Covid-19 cases.”

The committee advised wearing a face mask when attending mass events such as rallies, concerts and festivals, meeting with strangers outdoors, and visiting a medical institution.

Meanwhile, in the transition team's 100-day Covid roadmap, it also included a plan to alter the current social distancing measures.

“We will implement social distancing based on scientific standards, and not randomly,” Ahn noted.

He said new social distancing rules will be determined by the density of facilities instead of by business type as in the past. The government will support high-risk facilities such as nursing homes improving their ventilation systems.

Ahn added the Yoon administration will conduct a study of a representative 10,000 people to look into the aftereffects of Covid-19, known as Long Covid, and create a support system, while also raising the limit on compensation for vaccine side effects and deaths to 50 million won and 100 million won, respectively.

Despite cases usually increasing in the middle of the week, Korea’s daily new Covid-19 infections remained below 100,000 for one week on Wednesday.

Korea reported 76,787 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, raising the total caseload to 17,086,626, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). This was the first time for a Wednesday’s figure to fall below 100,000 in ten weeks since Feb. 16.

Yet the number of virus-related fatalities bounced back above 100 to 141 on Wednesday from the previous day’s 82 deaths, bringing the death toll to 22,466.

The number of critically-ill patients totaled 546 as of Tuesday midnight, which was the first time in two months for the figure to be in the 500s.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]