Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Korea falters in year-end COVID-19 fight
Citizens form a long line at a makeshift COVID-19 testing center in front of Seoul Station, Tuesday. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
Gov't hit for inconsistent quarantine policies
By Bahk Eun-ji
The government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which was once acclaimed both domestically and internationally, is losing its luster and the trust of people here because of its inconsistency in applying social distancing rules and lagging vaccination plan.
In regular press briefings by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, Monday and Tuesday, questions were raised why the health authorities were still hesitating to adopt Level 3 measures, the highest in the administration's five-tier plan, although the average daily rate of new infections nearly reached 1,000 over the past week.
According to the plan, Level 3 is adopted when locally transmitted COVID-19 cases surge to between 800 and 1,000 a day, or the daily tally doubles from the previous day.
The health authorities have acknowledged that the current social distancing, the second-highest in the greater Seoul area, has failed to flatten the virus infection curve, but has been cautious in adopting Level 3 as the move could cause huge economic damage to shop owners and self-employed people.
They instead chose “targeted” quarantine measures, such as banning gatherings of five or more people, starting Wednesday in the greater Seoul area, and Thursday nationwide.
Critics say the government is not keeping to the standards for social distancing that it established itself, and this could give the wrong signal that the regulations are not that important nor effective.
“Only when the government adheres to the principle will the distancing measures be effective,” said Chon Eun-mi, director of the respiratory center at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital.
“The more targeted measures are added to the current Level 2.5, the more confused this makes residents. In a situation where patients are dying due to an intensive care unit (ICU) bed shortage, the government should immediately adopt a stronger distancing level so the medical system can reset capacity to handle patients,” Chon said.
The government's vaccination plan is also vague, with the authorities being unable to answer when the first inoculations will be started and who will be the first recipients.
While some countries have already started vaccinations and many others say they have signed deals to purchase vaccines, Korea has yet to finalize deals with several pharmaceutical companies. Experts point out that the government's overconfidence in its coronavirus response is the reason for the country's relatively late purchase of COVID-19 vaccines and in insufficient quantities, as well as the shortage of ICU beds and medical personnel.
In the meantime, the central government announced toughened quarantine measures, Tuesday, to prevent gatherings for the year's end, following its gathering ban on five or more people in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, revealed the previous day.
The gathering ban will expand to all other parts of the country, from Thursday to Jan. 3. During the time, 16 ski resorts, 35 ice rinks and other winter tourist venues, including Jeongdongjin Beach in Gangwon Province popular for watching the sunrise on New Year's Day, will be closed.
Senior citizen care centers will limit visits by outsiders, and restaurants will be banned from allowing group customers with more than four people. Hotels and guesthouses will only be allowed to operate at half their capacity.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), there were 869 new infections for Monday, including 824 local cases, raising the total caseload to 51,460.