The South Korean government has implemented a plan to resume daily routines in November and loosen the anti-epidemic regulations in phases. However, in the first stage, the number of confirmed cases and death has increased significantly, and the supply of critically ill beds has been in a hurry. The new measures originally scheduled to be announced last week have also been postponed to this day due to the different opinions of various ministries on the epidemic.
Moon Jae-in said that South Korea is again facing a new important juncture. The number of newly diagnosed, critically ill, and deceased patients is rapidly increasing, and the number of hospital beds is tight. If this difficulty is not overcome, the phased recovery of daily routines may fail, and called to face it with more high vigilance and unity.
As the epidemic worsened beyond expectations, the authorities decided to postpone the second phase of unwinding and implement special countermeasures, including raising the standard for complete vaccination doses to 3 doses and strengthening the promotion of vaccination for the 12 to 17-year-old population.
About the new variant virus Omicron that has recently been spotted in Africa, South Korea has included the Republic of South Africa and other eight countries as targets of enhanced epidemic prevention since the 28th, and has suspended visa issuance. Koreans returning to South Korea must also be quarantined in designated facilities after entering the country.