Shinan-gun, Proactive Response to COVID-19 Social Distancing 'Bitna'

Proactive Implementation of Preventive Measures Such as Table Spacing and Partition Installation in March Last Year

Since March 2019, Sinan-gun has been implementing a year-round project to support the installation of standing tables in general restaurants within the jurisdiction. (Photo by Sinan-gun)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do has been implementing a year-round project to support standing tables in local general restaurants since March 2019 to respond to COVID-19 and provide convenience for tourists and the elderly.

According to Sinan-gun on the 20th, the standing table support project is a program that provides up to 5 million KRW per business to install standing tables in existing and new establishments.

Since 2019, Sinan-gun has invested 430 million KRW in the budget to support the installation of 1,715 standing tables in 147 out of 362 total establishments. Currently, more than 90% of the establishments have standing tables installed.

Additionally, Sinan-gun invested 280 million KRW in facility improvement funds for 26 hygiene establishments to renovate outdated restrooms, kitchens, business areas, and signboards.

The standing table support and facility improvement projects promoted by Sinan-gun have laid the groundwork for proactively implementing quarantine guidelines such as maintaining a 1-meter distance between tables in food hygiene establishments, leaving one seat empty between tables, installing partitions between tables, and minimizing the time spent in restaurants.

A Sinan-gun official said, “The standing table support project has marked the beginning of improving food culture, and we hope it will lead to improvements such as the use of single-person meal set utensils.” He added, “We will continue to do our best to promote Sinan’s flavors and advance food culture.”

Park Woo-ryang, Mayor of Sinan-gun, stated, “Everyone is going through a difficult time due to COVID-19,” and added, “In 2021, we will actively support hygiene establishments by preparing various policies to create a safe and clean sanitary environment.”

Meanwhile, since the second half of last year, social distancing was raised to level 2 due to the rapid spread of COVID-19.