19th April, 2020
South Korea has relaxed its social distancing rules after it recorded just eight new coronavirus infections, the lowest in two months.
The relaxed restrictions would enable high-risk venues like churches and sporting fixtures to commence activities. The Korea Baseball Organisation (KBO) can resume its league but without an audience.
Despite relaxing the rules, South Korea also extended its social distancing policy for another 16 days.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-Kyun said during a televised meeting; “It is safest to maintain the intensive social distancing, but it isn’t easy realistically. We need to find a middle ground,”
“If we can maintain stable management at the current level, we will shift to ‘routine social distancing’ from May 6,” Chung said.
The latest figure on new infections was the first time since Feb. 18 that South Korea reported a single-digit daily rise. The increase takes its total cases to 10,661.
Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said that out of the new cases, five were imported from overseas. It has largely managed to bring the outbreak under control and has recently been reporting daily new cases hovering around 20.
Health authorities called the trend good news but issued a note of caution about overly optimistic predictions.