Indoor mask mandate may be lifted after New Year holiday

Social Affairs

Published: 12 Jan. 2023, 16:31

Indoor mask mandate may be lifted after New Year holiday

Shoppers in a book store in Seoul walk down an aisle with a sign that reminds the public to wear their masks. [YONHAP]

The indoor mask mandate could be lifted right after the New Year holidays, which end on Jan. 24.

A government official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on the condition of anonymity earlier this week said authorities were scheduled to discuss the lifting of the mandate with health experts next Tuesday.

If experts agree that Korea should do away with the indoor mask rule, there’s a “possibility” that the mandate will be lifted “immediately” after the Lunar New Year holidays, the official stressed.

This year’s New Year holidays will last from Jan. 21 to 24, with Seollal, or the Lunar New Year, falling on Jan. 22.

The indoor mask rule is among Korea’s last remaining Covid restrictions. Many other rules were lifted last year, including an outdoor mask mandate.

Other Covid restrictions still in place include a mandatory seven-day quarantine for people infected with the coronavirus.

Korea is the only country among OECD member states that requires face masks in all indoor facilities.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) late last year officially announced that the indoor mask mandate will be “downgraded to a recommendation” as early as January 2023, but only when certain conditions are met.

A recommendation would essentially mean people will be able to individually decide whether to wear a mask or not.

Even when the mandate is replaced with a recommendation, masks will still be required in medical facilities and on public transportation.

The KDCA said two out of four conditions will need to be met for the mandate to be switched to a recommendation: cases must not be increasing for at least two weeks; the number of patients in critical or serious condition must be on a decline and the weekly fatality rate should be 0.1 percent or below; hospitals and clinics must have enough beds to care for patients who develop serious illnesses; and a good proportion of the population at higher risk of infection must get booster vaccine shots.

At least two of these conditions have already been met, but Im Suk-yeong, a high-level official at the Central Disease Control Headquarters, told reporters this week that even so, the government would be looking at the “overall situation” in deciding whether to ditch the indoor mask policy.

An average of about 59,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus each day over the past week, nearly 10 percent down from the previous week, as health authorities admit that the seventh wave of the coronavirus was ebbing.

But one looming risk factor is transmissions by recent travelers from China.

While short-term travelers from China have been required to get tested at Incheon International Airport as soon as they arrive, and quarantine for a week at a state-run facility if they turn out positive, Korean nationals and foreigners with residency status in Korea returning from China have been told to get tested at a public health center near their homes no later than a day after they arrive.

Local government offices have been in charge of checking whether the latter group actually gets tested, but some offices say they’ve been struggling with tracking down people who submitted false details about their addresses and phone numbers on the Q-Code system, which all travelers from China have to fill in before boarding flights to Korea.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, 29 out of 3,566 people from China who arrived at Incheon International Airport from Jan. 2 to 4 had not been tested as of Wednesday: nine Koreans and 20 foreigners.

Health authorities warned that any traveler from China who intentionally refuses to get tested for the coronavirus could face up to a year in prison or up to 10 million won ($8,000) in fines.

BY YI WOO-LIM, LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]