[Corona Behind] Can we go back to before the distance?

※ 'Corona Behind' is a report by Park Soo-jin, a reporter from the Life and Culture Department of SBS Press Headquarters, who is running at the forefront of COVID-19 coverage.

Once a week, reporters Park's articles and thoughts that were not included in the article are released to readers.

[Editor's Note]

8 friends raised 1 million won.

Two years ago, November 2020.

'See you after a long time' is money raised by consensus.

Since the corona epidemic was already in full swing, there was no place to meet with peace of mind.

I booked an accommodation near Seoul on Airbnb.

I found a spacious, single-family residence that does not run into other guests and is not cramped even for 8 people.

The scheduled meeting is December 26th.

However, the number of private meetings was limited to four people four days before the reservation.

A situation in which I missed the reservation cancellation time while waiting with the mindset of 'it will be okay'.

Only half of the 1 million won already paid can be refunded.

At that time, there were a lot of disputes over the cancellation of reservations due to Corona and the issue of fees.

I sent a message to the boss.

Reporter: Is Corona Cancellation different from general reservation cancellation?

I don't think I can go.

President: If you cancel now, it would be a huge loss.

You can postpone the date until the corona is stable.

Reporter: Is it possible?

I hope the corona will pass soon.

We postponed our reservation to March 13, three months later.

However, the ban on more than five people was extended, and gatherings became impossible that day.

Reporter: The boss has been extended by two weeks.

Is it possible to reschedule to April 17th?

Boss: Yes, it is possible.

I'll postpone it.

The situation was repeated.

The number of people and time limits due to social distancing have changed, but they have been maintained.

Eventually I sent another message.

Reporter: Sorry for always contacting you like this.

Maybe... can it be postponed to the second half of this year?

Boss: Yes.

You can report the situation without setting a date and contact us when it is appropriate.

This conversation we had on April 9, 2021 was our last conversation with the boss.

Another year passed, and the "appropriate time" never came, and none of my friends said, 'Let's go because it's a waste of money'.

A friend who is a soldier was not allowed to eat outside for a while, and a friend who was a teacher did not even have family gatherings because of concerns about students, so the meeting was virtually impossible.

The number of confirmed cases has increased tens of times since then, but as time passed, the worries and tensions about the corona have eased a lot.

From tomorrow (18th), 'distancing', which limited the number of people and time, will be abolished.

I wonder if we can hold this meeting now, but I don't know yet when the 'proper time' that everyone can relate to will be when we can meet with peace of mind.

Sometimes I think, 'Did I even have to get 500,000 won back then?'

Distance adjustment '48', our 'everyday life'

Social distancing.

It was an unfamiliar word two years ago, but now it has become a 'everyday word' that can be easily heard on the street and in people's conversations.

In two years, we've gone through over 40 distance adjustments.

During that time, the concept of social distancing also changed several times.

The word 'social distancing' was first used in a government briefing on February 29, 2020, and it was

.

However, as the first epidemic from the Shincheonji Church of Daegu spreads, legal action is added to this recommendation.

On March 22, 2020, we suspended the operation of entertainment facilities, indoor sports facilities, and religious facilities for a

.

Since then, a method of raising the level of distancing according to the epidemic situation was introduced (May 2020),

.

Since then, the number of people and time has increased and decreased, and the number of people who can gather or where they can go in varies depending on the vaccination history, and confusing things have become our daily life.

I am well aware that the government and experts who set the quarantine standards were deeply troubled, but looking back, there were a lot of quarantine rules that did not win the sympathy of the public.

There were measures to limit the speed of the treadmill at the gym or the BPM of the music, and while running on the treadmill was okay, there were measures to limit running in Zumba or spinning programs.

There were also restrictions on the number of weddings and eating, which made the newlyweds even form a group to hold a protest press conference and visit the National Assembly to call for action.

The screams of the self-employed and small business owners who took on the actual damage of the social distancing measures continued.

The two difficult values ​​of 'maximum infection prevention' and 'minimum damage to property' collided throughout the two years.

Distance 'completely lifted', why now?

This social distancing will be lifted from tomorrow.

The government has set the direction of lifting the distance early and has coordinated the implementation time.

This is because there was a realization that as Omicron spreads, the quarantine policy of blocking and restricting no longer works.

The peak of the epidemic was when the average weekly number of people exceeded 400,000 in the third week of March, but the government started last January at '4 people, 9 o'clock' → '6 people, 10 o'clock' → '8 people, 11 o'clock' → '10 It has been relaxed to 12 o'clock.

There are also questions and criticisms about this, saying, "When there were hundreds or thousands of confirmed cases, the distance was strengthened, and then when there were hundreds of thousands, why was it lifted?"

The statistical basis for the decision to be completely lifted by the quarantine authorities is that, first of all, a clear decline has continued since the peak of the epidemic in the third week of March.

At the peak of the third week of March, the weekly average number of confirmed cases exceeded 400,000, but has now dropped to the 100,000 level.

A government official said, "Three out of five domestic private research institutes predict that the hydraulic model will drop below 100,000 within two weeks."

Although it is true that the number of critically ill patients and deaths is slow, it is true that the number of deaths is significantly declining when counting the deaths by the 'date of death' rather than the 'by the reporting date', which is disclosed to the media.

Along with this scientific basis, one of the main motives for ending the period is the political viewpoint of 'transition of government'.

According to the coverage, it seems that there was a fight between the current government and the new government over who would explode the chant of 'recovery to daily life before Corona'.

The current government wanted to directly put an end to the so-called 'K-Quarantine' that had been working hard for the past two years, and the new government wanted to fire the signal of this recovery with the start of a new government.

The judgment of the relevant ministries that it is difficult to continue the budget that was poured out as compensation, etc. to designate a hospital dedicated to the corona virus and prepare a dedicated hospital bed while continuing the state of Corona emergency also had an impact.

A government official also said, "We need momentum to break the emergency system that has lasted for two years, and the best thing is the current time for regime transfer."

Unfinished worries...

'Can I take off the mask?'

It has been decided to lift the distance, but the worries are not over.

There are still obstacles left to return to a complete daily life.

First of all, it is a 'mask'.

Last Friday, when it was decided to lift the distance, I interviewed citizens on the streets of Yeonnam-dong, Seoul, and there were many people who said that the actual recovery of daily life is taking off the mask.

In the course of an internal government meeting to adjust this distance, it was also the question of whether to 'remove the wearing of outdoor masks'.

Usually, the decision is made through a working-level meeting between the main script and the main script, a face-to-face or written meeting of the Daily Recovery Support Committee, and a quarantine strategy meeting presided over by the Prime Minister's Office.

The meeting started around 4 pm and ended a little after 6 pm, but it was not until the end of the meeting that an arbitration plan called 'decision pending' was reached.

A government official said that before this meeting, an alternative "to remove the outdoor mask, but to wear a mask only for high-density gatherings or events, or to make it mandatory to keep a distance of 2m" was also discussed, but in the end, two weeks later You postponed the decision.

According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the US, UK, Germany, France, Singapore, New Zealand and Japan have lifted the requirement to wear an outdoor mask.

Among them, Japan and the UK have also lifted indoor masks, while the US and France have lifted them, but they must be used in public transportation, and in Germany, wearing masks is still compulsory at 'medical institutions and public transportation'.

If wearing an outdoor mask is lifted after 2 weeks, and then wearing an indoor mask is also lifted, will you take off your mask?

I asked this question to the citizens as well, and many comments said, "Even if I take it off, I will wear it for a while because I am anxious" and "It seems to be difficult to take it off easily."

In fact, if you look at the results of a recent survey by Professor Myung-soon Myung-soon at Seoul National University, more than 8 out of 10 people appeared to be in favor of the mandatory wearing of masks. I wonder if there will be another social conflict caused by this.

Unfinished worries...

'Can we not quarantine?'

The issue of quarantine of confirmed patients is similar.

The government has decided to downgrade Corona 19, a first-class infectious disease, to a second-class infectious disease from the 25th.

Even if it goes down to level 2, the 7-day isolation of the current confirmed person is maintained.

The compulsory home treatment will disappear, and if you catch a cold like a cold, you can go to the hospital for treatment.

Initially, the government considered reducing the quarantine period from one week to five days.

There was also talk of announcing the shortening of quarantine in time for the lowering of the infectious disease class to level 2.

But there was controversy.

This is because the quarantine authorities have already announced that the transmission of the coronavirus will decrease until at least 7 days after infection.

There was an internal concern that in order to shorten the quarantine period, there had to be a justification to reverse the explanation.

In the end, the quarantine period was not shortened, but the implementation period until the end of May, after observing the decrease in the epidemic and the strengthening of medical response, decided to abolish it altogether.

Opinions that the public's acceptance of the quarantine policy is declining, such as the increasing number of 'Shai Omicron', which hides infection because they hate quarantine, also had an impact.

However, the distance has also been lifted, and there are high concerns about the case where the quarantine of the confirmed person is not done.

Although it is said to have decreased a lot, there are still more than 100,000 confirmed cases, and new mutations are continuously emerging.

It is pointed out that even if the high-risk group is vaccinated with additional vaccines and treatment prescriptions are increased, the risk of exposure to the virus will inevitably increase if social quarantine is loosened, but it is only increasing the risk.

As with the removal of masks, if the timing of policy change and the timing of public acceptance do not coincide, another conflict may be inevitable.

From tomorrow, when social distancing is lifted, I think the inevitable 'transitional period' to return to daily life will begin rather than an immediate recovery of daily life.

How will this 'transitional period' change our daily life?

(Reporter: Park Soo-jin, PD: Kim Do-kyun, Illustration: Kim Jeong-yeon, Producer: D Content Planning Department)