Korea to lift indoor mask mandate on Monday

Social Affairs

Published: 29 Jan. 2023, 16:41

Korea to lift indoor mask mandate on Monday

A notice placed inside the Seoul Station on Jan. 20 announces that masks will still be required in subways after the indoor mask mandate is lifted across most indoor facilities from Jan. 30. [NEWS1]

Korea is lifting its indoor mask mandate on Monday, more than two years after the blanket rule was first introduced inside all buildings and public transportation across the country.

For the first time in two years and three months, people in Korea will no longer be mandated to wear a mask across most indoor facilities including schools and kindergartens, office spaces, restaurants, supermarkets, bars, cafes and gyms. The only exception where masks are still required are while on public transportation and in medical facilities.

The indoor mask regulation has been in place since October 2020 and anyone defying the rule could have been fined up to 100,000 won ($80). Facilities found to be not enforcing the regulation could have been fined up to 3 million won.

Masks are still required on public transportation such as the subway, buses, taxis and planes, as well as in medical facilities including hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. The inclusion of planes on the list means that passengers on all incoming and outgoing flights to or from Korea will still be required to wear masks, regardless of the policy in the country of departure or arrival.

Korea is one of the last countries to lift its indoor mask mandate, with Japan, Taiwan and parts of Egypt still maintaining similar policies as of Sunday.

Korea earlier lifted its outdoor mask mandate in degrees starting last May, scrapping it completely on Sept. 26 last year.

Korea’s authority on Covid-19 response, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), said in a press briefing Friday that wearing masks in indoor spaces is still “recommended” if one has been in direct contact with a Covid-19 patient or in an enclosed environment with little ventilation.

Monday also marks the third anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the Covid-19 outbreak a state of Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

There were reports that the emergency committee on Covid-19 at the WHO may call off the state of emergency on Monday.

Students walk to school in a neighborhood in Seoul last Friday. Starting Monday, the indoor mask mandate will be lifted across all indoor facilities except on public transportation and in medical facilities such as hospitals. [NEWS1]

Korea’s health authorities had hinted that should this happen, they may consider dropping the last surviving Covid-19 regulation, the seven-day quarantine for those infected with Covid-19.

“We plan to review the quarantine obligations when the state of emergency is lifted by the WHO, and when the data in Korea also shows there is medical stability,” said Lim Sook-young, a senior official of the KDCA, in a press briefing last Wednesday.

The KDCA had cited recent stabilization in patient numbers, decreasing numbers of patients in critical condition and the readiness of medical response capacity as reasons for its decision to lift the indoor mask mandate.

A total of 18,871 people were newly infected with Covid-19 as of Saturday midnight, bringing the total count to 30,149,601, according to the KDCA.

There were 420 patients in critical condition as of midnight Saturday. A total of 29 people died from Friday to Saturday, bringing the total deaths to 33,390 at a death rate of 0.06 percent.

Korea had several cycles of outbreaks since it reported its first case on Jan. 20, 2020, including its record of over 600,000 on March 17, 2022.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]