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government has finalized and announced a roadmap to ease the obligation to wear indoor masks.
Measures to ease the wearing obligation must meet at least two of the four criteria, such as the trend of confirmed cases, but the Agency for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that the mask duty would be adjusted at the end of January at the earliest.
Reporter Nam Joo-hyun reports.
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There are four criteria for determining when to ease the obligation to wear masks as determined by the health authorities.
Stabilization of patient occurrence, reduction of severe cases and deaths, stable medical response capacity, and acquisition of high-risk immunity. If two or more of these are met, it is adjusted to the first stage after discussion.
Whether the number of patients has passed the peak, whether there are weekly cases for more than 2 weeks, whether the number of patients with severe or severe cases during the week has decreased compared to the previous week, and whether the fatality rate remains below 0.1% is determined to determine whether the criteria are met.
Acquisition of immunity to high-risk groups is aimed at an additional vaccination rate of 50% or more for the elderly and a vaccination rate of 60% or more for vulnerable facilities.
The Agency for Disease Control and Prevention believes that it will be possible to adjust to stage 1 at the end of January at the earliest if the current trend is current.
[Ji Young-mi/Chief of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: I think it will probably reach a very gentle peak in January, and after that, we will observe the decline for about 2 weeks (we will discuss it).]
In the first stage, medical institutions and pharmacies Only some social welfare facilities, such as nursing homes for the elderly, and public transportation are required to wear them, and wearing them indoors is recommended.
Afterwards, if the corona crisis level is lowered to alert or caution, or if the corona's legal infectious disease rating is changed to level 4, it will be adjusted to level 2 once more, and wearing a mask will be recommended in all rooms.
The health authorities urged to temporarily assume that the number of confirmed cases will always increase when the indoor mask wearing obligation is eased, and to prepare for thorough quarantine and medical response.