December 16, 2022 12:51
The government will lift the indoor mask mandate in stages, keeping it in place in hospitals or nursing homes and public transportation.
An official at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency told experts in a debate on Thursday, "Now is the time to adjust the mask mandate according to the current state of the coronavirus pandemic. We may still need to encourage people to keep wearing masks even if they are no longer mandatory."
The official added much will depend on numbers of new COVID cases and seriously ill patients.
New infections stood at 66,953 on Friday morning, a slight increase from a week ago, but the figure could reach 100,000 a day in the depths of winter.
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