사회적 거리두기 1.5단계 격상<br /><br />Our starting point tonight: South Korea tightening its pandemic measures.<br />Authorities here have announced that they are raising the social distancing rules for the greater metro area to 1-point-5 effective midnight on Thursday after the country saw its daily Covid-19 tally hover above 200 for the fourth day in a row today.<br />With cluster infections concentrated in Seoul and the surrounding area, businesses and activities will be limited here for the next two weeks.<br />Kim Yeonseung leads our coverage tonight.<br />The South Korean government is raising the level of social distancing in the greater Seoul area to level 1-point-5 due to a persistently high number of coronavirus cases in and around the capital.<br />The stricter measures will take effect at midnight on Thursday and last for two weeks.<br />Nationwide on Tuesday, there were 230 cases, 90 of them in Seoul city alone.<br />Nine were traced to a sauna in Seocho-gu district.<br />Regions outside the capital have seen a rise in cases, too.<br />In Gwangju, Chonnam National University Hospital locked down after it confirmed 27 cases in less than a week.<br />When level 1-point-5 takes effect in the Seoul region, places that host events like weddings and funerals will have to limit the number of guests they admit.<br />Also, there'll be no eating allowed at singing rooms... or dancing at clubs.<br />Religious facilities and sporting venues will operate at 30-percent capacity.<br />Schools will go back to an attendance cap of two-thirds, and protests and festivals are limited to fewer than 100 people.<br />But some say that to effectively curb the spread, the capital should skip straight to level 2.<br />Under level 2, cafes and restaurants cannot have dine-in customers after 9 PM, and entertainment facilities like bars and singing rooms have to close completely.<br />But the health officials are conscious of the damage those measures would do to businesses.<br />"Under level 1-point-5, most businesses can continue to operate but just with a limited number of visitors. Level 2, on the other hand, would prevent many businesses from operating at all. So our day-to-day lives would be greatly restricted and threatened."<br />The health authorities said that they will do their best in the interests of both the economy and stopping COVID-19... and asked for everyone's full cooperation.<br />Kim Yeon-seung, Arirang News<br />
