Koreans are still required to wear masks at events with 50 attendants or more, such as at rallies, concerts and sports stadiums.

Seoul: South Korea on Friday decided to lift outdoor face mask mandate—starting next week— in the country’s latest step to ease COVID-19 related restrictions, despite opposition from the incoming government which labelled the decision “premature”.
As per reports, the decision was made as the government could “no longer look away” from the inconveniences experienced by its citizens when the country’s virus situation was stabilizing.
However, Koreans are still required to wear masks at events with 50 attendants or more, such as at rallies, concerts and sports stadiums.
The Asian country reported 50,568 new coronavirus cases on Friday, well down from the peak of more than 620,000 a day in mid-March.
The decision came just days ahead of newly elected President Yoon Suk-yeol’s inauguration on May 10 and despite his team’s opposition, prompting them to immediately express regrets and concerns over the announcement.
Earlier this week, the head of Yoon’s transition team, had said that the new government will consider going mask-free outdoors around end-May.
South Korea has already scrapped most of its pandemic-related precautions, including a midnight curfew on restaurants and other businesses.
The country has largely managed to limit deaths and critical cases through widespread vaccination, and it has scaled back the aggressive tracing and containment efforts that made it a mitigation success story from most of the first two years of the pandemic.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency data (KDCPA), nearly 87% of South Korea’s 52 million population are fully vaccinated, with 65% having also had a booster.

Microsoft employee arrested at headquarters protest of Israel contracts
- 18 گھنٹے قبل

America has turned dancing into a culture war
- ایک گھنٹہ قبل

Trump just did the one thing the Supreme Court said he can’t do
- ایک گھنٹہ قبل

Trump can’t stop America from building cheap EVs
- 16 گھنٹے قبل

5.3-magnitude quake sends tremors through Peshawar, Islamabad
- 11 گھنٹے قبل
At least two dead, a dozen wounded in Minneapolis shooting: US media
- 11 گھنٹے قبل
Pakistan’s monsoon misery: nature’s fury, man’s mistake
- 14 گھنٹے قبل

Why Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye will beat player futures projections
- 2 گھنٹے قبل

Living on Mars would suck
- 16 گھنٹے قبل

Gold prices continue to rise in Pakistan, global markets
- 17 گھنٹے قبل
“Unprecedented floods": controlled blast creates breach near Head Qadirabad on Chenab
- 17 گھنٹے قبل

Pakistan Army actively conducting flood rescue and relief operations in Punjab, KP
- 15 گھنٹے قبل