6 in 10 Seoul citizens back ‘social distancing’ extension

Six out of 10 citizens in Seoul said it was necessary to extend rigorous social distancing, a survey showed Friday, as the nationwide measure against the spread of COVID-19 is scheduled to end on Sunday. 

According to the survey for Seoul Metropolitan Government by Global Research, which was conducted from April 10-12 on 1,000 people living in Seoul, 63.6 percent of the respondents said it was too soon for the country to transition to “routine safety measures” from Sunday, while 33.4 percent said it is necessary to shift to “routine distancing.”

The government considers moving on to “routine safety measures,” which would allow citizens to resume their economic activities and lead normal daily lives while fighting the virus, amid growing fatigue over the prolonged social distancing campaign.

The government says the routine safety measures require people to continue to stick to social distancing guidelines, but it is widely seen as lifting weekslong intensive social distancing rules.

Some 97 percent of the respondents said there was a need to transition to the routine distancing at some point to overcome an economic crisis by normalizing economic activities.

Asked when the country should shift to routine distancing, 36.5 percent of the respondents said “when the government has the system that can bring the situation under control,” followed by “when the country has less than 10 confirmed cases” (33.8 percent) and “when the country has less than 30 confirmed cases.” (19.6 percent)

South Korea has run its rigorous social distancing campaign since March 22. The government urged the public to stay indoors and tightened restrictions on religious gatherings as well as indoor sports facilities and entertainment establishments.

Due in large part to such practices, the country had managed to flatten the virus curve, recording the ninth day with less than 50 cases on Friday.

Korea reported 22 new cases on Friday, with the total number of infections at 10,635.

But it is seeing new cases keep coming from overseas and new clusters of infections across the country.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)