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While some local government heads have talked about lifting the indoor mask duty due to corona, the health authorities have made an official statement for the first time.

As early as next month, you can take off the mask even indoors, but we plan to announce specific plans within this year.



Reporter Yoo Seung-hyun reports.



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The health authorities, who had announced that they would take off their indoor masks only in March next year due to concerns about the resurgence of corona and the flu in the winter, have moved up the schedule.



[Lee Sang-min/Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters 2nd Deputy Head: (The day after tomorrow) we plan to discuss the adjustment direction for the mandatory mask wearing at the major script meeting, and we will prepare the final adjustment plan by the end of this month.]



Indoor mask in daily life Mandatory wearing is expected to be lifted next month at the earliest.

[Baek Gyeong



-ran/Chief of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: If the criteria are met in the future, the transition period is expected to be between January next year at the earliest and March at the latest.]



This is because vaccination and natural infection have made the majority of the people equipped with defenses, and the global trend of easing quarantine was taken into account.



As a result of the SBS coverage, it was confirmed that the quarantine authorities predicted that the 7th epidemic would peak around early January, and it was confirmed that it was okay to take off the indoor mask once the trend was confirmed to decline.



However, if it is determined that the epidemic is declining and it is determined that time is needed to expand vaccination, the timing of removing the mask may be slightly delayed.

[Baek Gyeong-ran/Chief of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: I don't think the current epidemic



has reached a downward trend, and it still takes a little more time for older people to get vaccinated.]



In order to protect high-risk groups, mandatory masks are expected to remain in some places, such as medical institutions.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol · Park Young-il, video editing: Park Ji-in, CG: Park Cheon-woong · Jo Soo-in)