Authorities: "Youth Quarantine Pass Must Be Maintained... Some Hagwons Also Require Quarantine Pass"

The government has decided to lift the quarantine pass for facilities with a low risk of COVID-19 transmission, such as large supermarkets, movie theaters, museums, private academies, and reading rooms. On the 17th, citizens were moving to shop at a large supermarket in Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Recently, following a series of court rulings halting the implementation of the vaccination certificate and negative test confirmation system (vaccine pass), health authorities have taken these into account and lifted the vaccine pass requirement for certain facilities. However, the vaccine pass for adolescents aged 12 to 18 remains necessary, and authorities emphasized their intention to actively persuade the courts regarding some high-risk facilities.

On the morning of the 17th, Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Division at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (CDSCH), stated at the regular COVID-19 briefing, "There is a high possibility that infections will spread significantly among adolescents when the Omicron variant becomes prevalent," and added, "We have decided that the adolescent vaccine pass should continue to be maintained." He further explained, "We excluded learning facilities, which were pointed out as the biggest issue, from this measure," and said, "We plan to focus on explaining and discussing these points with the courts through immediate appeals in the future."

Recently, the Seoul Administrative Court has issued consecutive decisions to suspend the effectiveness of the vaccine pass for nationwide academies, study cafes, reading rooms, and large-scale stores over 3,000㎡ such as supermarkets and department stores in Seoul. The enforcement of the vaccine pass expansion policy for adolescents aged 12 to 18 was also suspended. However, while deciding to lift the vaccine pass for a total of 135,000 locations nationwide?including academies, reading rooms, study cafes, libraries, museums, art galleries, science centers, large-scale stores such as department stores and supermarkets, movie theaters, and performance halls?the authorities have not wavered in their stance that the vaccine pass is necessary for adolescents.

Additionally, although the authorities announced the exclusion of academies from the vaccine pass application in consideration of the right to learn, they see the need to maintain the vaccine pass for academies in three specific fields?wind instruments, singing, and acting?where mask-wearing is difficult or where activities generate many droplets. They plan to focus on persuading the courts about this during the appeal process. Son said, "(These facilities) are cases where wearing masks is fundamentally impossible," and added, "We will explain that the vaccine pass application must continue."

However, since the vaccine pass was applied due to the high risk of infection, there are concerns that if the vaccine pass is lifted, cluster infections linked to these facilities could reoccur. Son stated, "We have decided to discuss follow-up measures to strengthen infection control more systematically," and added, "We plan to develop and implement infection control measures appropriate to the situation." Regarding pre-vaccine pass regulations such as spacing one seat apart even among groups in movie theaters, he evaluated them as "quite strict" and said, "We consider those somewhat excessive."

Citizens visiting the temporary screening clinic set up at Seoul Station Plaza on the 16th are undergoing tests. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

However, since the lifting of the vaccine pass for these facilities is based on the current improvement in infection control levels, there remains a possibility that the vaccine pass could be reinstated if the infection control situation worsens due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

As of the 15th, the number of Omicron-infected patients reached 5,030, doubling from 2,351 on the 8th, a week earlier. The domestic detection rate also surpassed the previous week's 12.5%, reaching 26.7%, and among overseas arrivals, the detection rate is 94.7%, confirming that the vast majority are Omicron cases. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency expects the detection rate of Omicron to exceed 50% by this weekend, indicating a dominance of the variant.

Regarding this, Son said, "If the outbreak among students rapidly expands, infecting many students and making face-to-face classes difficult, there is a possibility that the vaccine pass will be applied." However, he added that such strong measures will be applied as conservatively as possible to protect the right to learn.

Son also acknowledged criticisms that major infection control measures such as the vaccine pass have been implemented without sufficient social discussion, causing side effects, and expressed a willingness to rectify this. He said, "The situation changes daily, and we face the practical difficulty of urgently deciding infection control measures focusing on the most vulnerable and problematic points," and added, "We agree with the criticism that more transparency and procedural steps are needed, and we will continue to improve these procedures."