The inhabitants of South Korea will be able to breathe. Seoul authorities announced on Friday the end of the obligation to wear a mask indoors from January 30. This is one of the last anti-Covid-19 restrictions in force in the country. The mask will nevertheless remain compulsory in public transport and medical establishments. In addition, people who test positive for Covid-19 will still have to isolate themselves for seven days.
The goal is that wearing a mask indoors will no longer be “mandatory” but “recommended”, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during a government meeting on the Covid response strategy. According to him, this decision was taken in view of the response capacity considered solid of the Korean health system, the decrease in the number of serious cases and deaths due to the coronavirus, as well as the downward trend of new infections. “External risk factors were also deemed manageable enough,” he added, in an apparent reference to Seoul’s recent response to the spike in cases in China.
Nearly 30 million South Koreans have had Covid, and more than 33,000 have died from it, according to official data. The strategy of South Korea, a country which has tested massively without ever imposing compulsory confinement, was welcomed at the start of the health crisis and quickly set up as a model against Covid-19.