NEW DISTANCING MEASURES TO TAKE EFFECT

[Anchor Lead]

New social distancing guidelines will take effect from tomorrow with eased measures. In Seoul and surrounding areas, entertainment facilities will be able to resume operation again and more people will be allowed to gather at one time. However, a set of special measures is in place for the capital area where a majority of confirmed cases are concentrated.

[Pkg]

This is a bar in Seoul's Seocho-gu District. The owner is busy getting it ready for business. Entertainment establishments are allowed to resume operation tomorrow.

[Soundbite] Yang Seung-geol(Bar Owner) : "There are mildew and cobwebs from closing the store. I’m cleaning out the place and getting ready to follow the government’s disease control measures."

Restaurants and cafes will be allowed to stay open until midnight. However, disease control supervision will be toughened as COVID-19 is still spreading widely in the capital region. Some 200 establishments in the Seoul metroplitan area were caught violating anti-virus rules since April. About 50 of them were penalized with a gathering ban or business suspension. Such a zero-tolerance approach will continue to be applied during a special disease control inspection which runs until July 18th.

[Soundbite] Kwon Deok-chul(Health Minister) : "When violations are repeated, all establishments in the same business in that area may be penalized with operation restrictions."

Preemptive testing will also be expanded in Seoul. Screening centers will stay open until 9 p.m. on weekdays and 6 p.m. on weekends and holidays. On-site preemptive screening tests will be administered in areas with a high concentration of private academies, or hagwons.

[Soundbite] Park Yu-mi (Seoul Metropolitan Gov’t) : "Hagwons are mostly in Gangnam-gu, Nowon-gu and Yangcheon-gu Districts. On-site screening will take place in these three districts."

The Gyeonggi provincial government recommended entertainment businesses and hagwons to conduct preemptive tests once a week. Workers at logistics hubs and call centers will use self-testing kits. The city of Incheon decided to visit all multi-purpose facilities at least once to conduct COVID-19 tests. Also starting tomorrow, people who have been vaccinated with at least one dose can go outdoors without a mask. But the government warned that mask wearing can be made mandatory again if variant cases worsen.