Anchor: Seoul city government has designated a "standstill period" for the capital city, starting from Tuesday. The emergency measure is not a lockdown, but bars and nightclubs will be shut down while customers cannot stay at restaurants late at night. The citywide measures came as the central government decided to raise the social distancing level from the second lowest to the third the previous day in its five-tier scale for Seoul and its surrounding areas and the South and North Jeolla provinces.
Kim Bum-soo reports.

Report: 

[Sound bite: Seoul Metropolitan Government Acting Mayor Seo Jung-hyup (Korean)]
"There is no more safe haven... " 

Acting Seoul Mayor Seo Jung-hyup has announced what he called a citywide standstill, running from Tuesday until the end of the year. 

Announcing the decision, he said there is no safe haven against the COVID-19 outbreak, noting that the current upsurge isn't due to a few major clusters but widespread small scale outbreaks. 

[Sound bite: Seoul Metropolitan Government Acting Mayor Seo Jung-hyup (Korean/English Translation)] 
"Seoul City is gravely considering the current situation as the most-crucial moment in the COVID-19 outbreak, and strongly respond with pinpoint quarantine measures. On top of raising social distancing to Level Two in line with the central government, the city will issue an emergency standstill for ten million Seoul citizens from Tuesday until the end of this year to enforce strict quarantine at ten types of facilities."

The "emergency standstill" does not refer to a lockdown but nightclubs and bars will be forced to shut down and stricter quarantine regulations will be applied to restaurants and coffee shops, requiring more than two meter distance between customers. 

Customers cannot stay inside cafes and restaurants after 9 pm, and are only allowed to place take-out and delivery orders.  

[Sound bite: Seoul Metropolitan Government Acting Mayor Seo Jung-hyup (Korean/English Translation)]
"Amid the increasing use of public transportations, Seoul City plans to reduce their operations to minimize the movement of people at the end of the year and during the nighttime. After thoroughly informing the public, operations of city buses and subways past 10:00 p.m. will be reduced by 20 percent starting Tuesday and Friday, respectively. Should the emergency situation continue, we will move up the operation of the last train from 12:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m." 

The citywide measures came as the central government decided to raise the social distancing level from the second lowest to the third in its five-tier scale for Seoul and its surrounding areas.

Under Level Two, both public and private events will either have to limit entry to fewer than 100 people or one person per four square meters.

In Seoul, the acting mayor said street rallies involving ten or more people will be prohibited.

Religious facilities are strongly recommended to hold all services online, and customer call centers and other high-density workplaces are asked to have half of their employees work from home.  

Only ten percent of stadium seats will be open for fans of professional sports and schools will have to maintain student density at a maximum two-thirds. 

South Korea reported 271 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the country's accumulated caseload to 31-thousand-four. Of the 255 local cases, 206 came from the capital region with 109 in Seoul. The number for the greater Seoul area remained above 200 for the fourth consecutive day, in what is perceived as the third wave of coronavirus outbreak. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.