Lee vows to establish special COVID-19 relief committee

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Monday that establishing a special committee for emergency COVID-19 relief will be his No. 1 executive order if he wins the March 9 presidential election.

Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) also promised that South Korea's virus response will "definitely change" from March 10 as he distances himself from the current government's COVID-19 scheme in an effort to win public support ahead of the election.

"The presidential transition committee will basically serve as a special emergency relief committee," Lee said at the DP's headquarters in Seoul. "Through the committee, I will swiftly push policies to overcome the crisis and completely restore people's daily lives."

Lee's remarks came a day after he promised to relax social distancing measures from March 10, while showing his displeasure toward recent government decisions on antivirus curbs.

Starting Saturday, the government pushed back the business curfew by one hour to 10 p.m. while keeping the private gathering size limit at six people.

"If there is no expansion of the private gathering size limit to eight or 10 people, they should have at least allowed those fully vaccinated with booster shots to stay longer," he said. "I again request that the restriction to be eased to midnight for those fully vaccinated with booster shots."

Regarding damage relief plans for small businesses, Lee said the DP will pass an extra budget bill later in the day and execute the plan within this week.

Following their floor leaders' meeting, the DP and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) reached an agreement to pass the bill at a plenary session scheduled to open at 6 p.m.

Lee also called for financial measures on helping small businesses, including loan maturity extensions, and said he will run credit amnesty programs for those who have poor credit scores due to the pandemic.

For virus policies on young people, Lee said the government should review scrapping enforcement of the youth vaccine pass system. He also criticized its recommendation of students taking at-home rapid COVID-19 tests twice a week.

"It is practically compulsory," he said. "I demand the authorities to consider plans of using self test-kits for those with symptoms." (Yonhap)