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The quarantine authorities have announced a roadmap for indoor masks.

If the corona spread is stabilized, wearing an indoor mask may change from mandatory to 'recommended' as early as next year's Lunar New Year.



This is a report by Cho Dong-chan, a medical reporter.



<Reporter> The



quarantine authorities have presented four conditions for lifting the indoor mask duty.



If the number of confirmed cases decreases for 2 weeks or more, or the number of seriously ill patients decreases, and the weekly case fatality rate is 0.1% or less, there are more than 50% of intensive care beds available for one month, or the improved bivalent vaccine vaccination rate is 50% for those 65 years of age or older and 60% in facilities vulnerable to infection When 2 out of 4 are met, such as when ideal, duty turns into advisory.



Currently, only 68% of critical care beds, 0.08% weekly fatality rate, and 1.5 are met.



The vaccination rate seems difficult to achieve, so the number of confirmed cases should decrease for more than two weeks, but the quarantine authorities expected after the Lunar New Year.



[Ji Young-mi/Chief of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: (The spread) I think it will probably reach a very gentle peak in January, and if we observe the decline for about two weeks after that...

.]



An official from the scriptwriter revealed that even if the actual application is after the Lunar New Year, the announcement could be made before the Lunar New Year.



However, the key variable is that the recent spread is steeper than before, and in particular, the proportion of BN.1, which has the greatest propagation power among mutations so far, is increasing.



[Park Hyang/Chief of Central Disaster Control Headquarters: After the first week of December, the trend increased by about 10% in the second week of December.]



Most indoor facilities such as schools, marts, and amusement parks are recommended. Although it changes, hospitals and nursing facilities are obligatory, and public transportation such as subways, railroads, buses, taxis, and airplanes are also obligatory.



The quarantine authorities emphasized that the recommendation is only to eliminate the 100,000 won fine for not wearing a mask, but it is still an important quarantine rule to block infection.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, Video editing: Lee Jae-seong, CG: Kang Gyeong-lim, Seo Dong-min, Jang Seong-beom, assistant Park Jeong-kwon)