ⓒYONHAP News

The government has decided to relax the 9 p.m. curfew for restaurants and cafes to 10 p.m., but will keep the cap on private gatherings at six.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum announced the decision on Friday while chairing a government meeting on COVID-19 responses.

The new social distancing measures are in place for three weeks from Saturday to March 13.

Kim said the government also decided to postpone the enforcement of COVID-19 pass system on teenagers by one month until April 1.

The government also no longer requires QR codes or other entry registration systems at multipurpose facilities.

Health authorities said on Friday that the change comes as the government has moved away from its signature test-track-treat approach to focus on treating high-risk COVID-19 patients and minimizing deaths.

Under the revised guidelines, confirmed patients are required to enter their own epidemiological data into the state system, freeing up public health officials to focus on managing at-home treatment of high-risk patients.

Authorities will consider reintroducing the entry registrations should there be an adverse development in the spread of the virus.

While the government is no longer tracking locations for the purpose of contact tracing, the entry pass function verifying a person's vaccination status will remain in effect at venues such as restaurants and coffee shops.

Earlier in the week, the government announced that students and teachers will be provided with free COVID-19 antigen kits ahead of the start of the 2022 school year, with the recommendation to self-test before returning to campus grounds next month.

Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae in a Wednesday briefing announced the government stands ready to distribute self-testing kits to some six-point-92 million students and teachers at elementary, middle and high schools across the nation.

Students will be advised to self-test once in the first week of March and then twice a week from the following week, while teachers will be encouraged to self-test once a week.  

Amid parents’ concerns that self-testing could cause their children physical pain and discomfort, the ministry decided the measure would be a recommendation and not a requirement. 

A budget of some 150 billion won has been earmarked for the program. Under the plan, 60-point-five million kits will be distributed from the fourth week of February through the end of the following month, with an average of one or two kits to be given to each recipient per week.