Province threatens to end indoor mask mandate on its own

Social Affairs

Published: 05 Dec. 2022, 16:26 Updated: 05 Dec. 2022, 17:08

Province threatens to end indoor mask mandate on its own

People wearing masks spend time at a bookstore in Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

South Chungcheong vowed to end the indoor mask mandate on its own if it isn't lifted nationwide.

South Chungcheong was following a similar announcement made by the city of Daejeon last week. It's vowed to lift the indoor mask mandate on Jan. 1.

The indoor mask mandate is the last remaining Covid-19 restriction in Korea along with a mandatory seven-day quarantine for confirmed patients.

While local authorities can institute tougher rules than those of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), they can't relax nationwide rules without the approval of the KDCA.

The Governor of South Chungcheong Kim Tae-heum reportedly questioned the effectiveness of the mandate in a meeting Monday morning. He said at this point in the pandemic, the decision to wear a mask should be a personal choice.

“After visiting the United States and Europe on a business trip, [I realized] wearing face masks indoors was not mandatory there,” Kim said. “Korea is the only country among OECD nations that maintains the mask mandate in [all] indoor settings.

“The government should actively review lifting the mandatory indoor masking rule,” said Kim, hinting at the possibility of his province ending the mandate on its own.

Daejeon's city government sent a letter to the KDCA last week saying that it will issue an administrative order of its own lifting the mandatory mask-wearing requirement if the central government fails to do so by Dec. 15. It said that people in restaurants and cafes are already not wearing masks.

Jung Ki-suck, a medical professor at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital and head of an advisory committee to the government on the pandemic, called for prudence when deciding whether to lift the indoor mask rule, citing risks to some groups.

"Once the indoor mask mandate is lifted, it is obvious that the number of Covid patients, critical cases, and deaths will increase,” Jung said in a press briefing on Monday. “We should also carefully consider who will be responsible for the unnecessary deaths and suffering mainly among high-risk groups.

“There is no particular change [in the situation that would allow] the ending of the indoor mask requirement at this time,” he added.

Regarding conditions for lifting the rule, Jung suggested bivalent booster vaccination rates of 50 percent or more of the public aged over 59, and 60 percent or more among residents and employees of nursing home or other high-risk facilities.

He stressed that Korea needs a nationwide response since its cities are so close to each other. Covid-19 policies differing between regions will lead to the risk of the virus spreading and backlashes over fairness, he said.

Korea reported 23,160 new Covid-19 infections on Monday, bringing the total caseload to 27,331.250, according to the KDCA data.

Monday’s daily tally rose 3.8 percent from a week earlier, or 0.36 percent from two weeks ago.

Forty more virus-related deaths were reported overnight, raising the total to 30,769.

Amid an apparent slowdown in the seventh wave, Professor Jung stressed that Korea is still in the middle of the wave.

"Almost 1,200 people are dying of the virus every month," he said, "and no infectious disease has ever killed this many people a day."

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