[Week 1, March] Latest COVID-19 Trends with Chris & Partners <br/> Can Confirmed Cases Vote in the Presidential Election?

✅ Latest COVID-19 Trends with Chris & Partners

(As of Mar 2, 2022)

Hello, this is Chris & Partners. After the ‘living with COVID’ declaration, we expected to regain everyday life, but confirmed cases are surging due to the Omicron variant. The first controller of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said that, with the same staffing but increased workload, even same-day processing of confirmed cases is in fact quite difficult. Accordingly, policies across many areas—quarantine guidelines, self-isolation criteria, and more—are changing. Today, we'll look at domestic COVID-related policy as of March 2, 2022.

Changed COVID quarantine guidelines

Private gathering size *Private gatherings remain capped at 6 nationwide *(For restaurants/cafés) unvaccinated people are exceptionally allowed solo use only *However, existing exceptions—cohabiting family, care (children, the elderly, the disabled, etc.)—continue *‘Unvaccinated’ means those not falling under vaccine-pass exceptions (PCR-negative, under 18, recovered, those unavoidably unable to be vaccinated) Operating-hours change Groups 1·2·3 and some other facilities extended to 22:00 -Group 1 (entertainment facilities, etc.) and Group 2 (restaurants, cafés, karaoke rooms, etc.) had operating hours extended from 21:00 to 22:00. -Group 3 and some other facilities (academies*, PC rooms, cinemas, performance halls**, party rooms, massage parlors***, etc.) keep the 22:00 limit *For academies, the 22:00 limit applies only to lifelong vocational-education academies **For cinemas/performance halls, screening/performance start times are allowed until 22:00 ***Under the Medical Act, massage establishments and parlors operated or staffed by the visually impaired are excluded Extension of the youth vaccine-pass application date Following the suspension rulings on the youth vaccine pass in Seoul (Jan 14) and Gyeonggi (Feb 17), implementing it as originally planned (Mar 1) could cause regional imbalance and on-site confusion, so the youth vaccine-pass application date was adjusted from the original March 1 to April 1. Temporary suspension of mandatory entry logs Previously, QR, safe-call, or handwritten logs were mandatory, but as the epidemiological-investigation method changed, mandatory entry logs were temporarily suspended (except at vaccine-pass facilities).

<11 types of vaccine-pass facilities> entertainment facilities, etc. (bars, hostess bars, clubs, ‘hunting pocha,’ ‘gamseong’ bars, ‘colatec,’ dance halls), karaoke (coin) rooms, indoor sports facilities, bathhouses, cycle/boat/horse racing/casino (for nationals), restaurants/cafés, multi-rooms, PC rooms, indoor sports (spectator) venues, party rooms, massage parlors

Source: COVID-19 Central Disaster Management Headquarters

Eased self-isolation criteria for confirmed cases/cohabitants

Source: Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Ministry of Health and Welfare

Can confirmed cases vote in the presidential election?

The 20th presidential election is right next week, so you may wonder whether confirmed cases can also vote! COVID-19 confirmed/isolated voters, under the law revised on February 16, may vote only on election day (March 9, 2022), from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., via a separately divided route and ballot box. It's best to vote in good health, but if you can't, remember the cautions above so everyone can vote safely! Did you find the COVID-19 quarantine system changes from March helpful? We hope COVID-19 settles down soon and we can greet spring in good health. 🌱