Coronavirus: South Korea to end most Covid-19 restrictions, India slams 4 million deaths claim
- People in South Korea will still be required to wear masks, however, with the government planning to review whether to lift a rule for masks outdoors in two weeks
- Meanwhile, India’s tally of daily Covid-19 cases nearly doubled on Monday from the previous day to more than 2,000 for the first time in a month
South Korea lifted almost all of its Covid-19 precautions on Monday in a major step towards a return to normal life as the Omicron variant recedes and daily infections retreated to a more than two-month low of fewer than 50,000.
A midnight curfew on restaurants and other businesses was scrapped, along with a cap of 10 people allowed to gather. From next week, people will be allowed to eat snacks in cinemas and other indoor public facilities such as stadiums.
People are still required to wear masks, however, with the government planning to review whether to lift a rule for masks outdoors in two weeks.
The relaxation of the rules come as the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea fell to 47,743 on Monday, the lowest since February 9, after hovering at more than 620,000 a day in mid-March.
Some rules, however, remain including mandatory quarantine for unvaccinated inbound travellers and negative PCR tests for the fully vaccinated.
South Korea has largely managed to limit deaths and critical cases through widespread vaccination, and it has scaled back the aggressive tracing and containment efforts that made it a mitigation success story from most of the first two years of the pandemic.
Nearly 87 per cent of the 52 million population are fully vaccinated, with 64 per cent having also had a booster, according to Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency data.