Anchor: The municipal governments of the Seoul metropolitan area have announced a ban on gatherings of five or more people as the latest wave of the COVID-19 epidemic shows no clear sign of subsiding. The central government is also scheduled to announce enhanced year-end quarantine measures in a bid to curb the virus' spread ahead of the holiday season.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: Acting Seoul Mayor Seo Jung-hyup announced on Monday that Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon will enforce a ban on gatherings of five or more people as the spread of COVID-19 continues ahead of the holiday season.

[Sound bite: Acting Seoul Mayor Seo Jung-hyup (Korean-English translation)]
"Now is the last opportunity to curb the spread of COVID-19. As a special quarantine step, the government of Seoul, together with Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, will ban private gatherings of five or more people from 12:00 a.m., December 23 until January 3. In consideration of the special circumstances, weddings and funerals will be allowed with up to 50 people in attendance in accordance with Level Two-point-Five distancing. Violators, including both businesses and individuals, will be slapped with a fine and we will respond sternly by taking administrative steps."

While Level Two-point-Five and Level Two social distancing are in place for the capital region and elsewhere, respectively, the latest ban is more stringent than even Level Three, which bans gatherings of ten people or more.

This comes as the number of daily cases on Monday totaled 926, slightly dropping to triple digits, but has remained near one-thousand cases for the past week. There have been reports of patients dying while waiting to be admitted for treatment.

The acting mayor said the capital city's medical capacity has reached its limit, with daily infections continuing to surge.

[Sound bite: Acting Seoul Mayor Seo Jung-hyup (Korean-English translation)]
"The current operation rate at infectious disease specializing hospitals in Seoul stands at 85-point-four percent. Eighty-seven of 91 beds for the critically ill in Seoul have been occupied with only four available beds remaining."

Meanwhile, the central government is expected to announce enhanced quarantine measures for the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, separate from raising distancing to the highest Level Three.

Authorities are believed to have decided to wait for a turnabout this week in the daily COVID-19 surge, after assessing that the current distancing has managed to contain the further spread of the virus.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong, however, called for adherence to distancing and quarantine, warning that the daily increase could spike to one-thousand-200 cases a day next week.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.