South Korea Halts Moving Forward with It’s Living With COVID Strategy

It only took a month, but the Moon administration has decided to not move forward with the next steps in its Living with COVID strategy:

President Moon Jae-in said Monday that the government will halt a further easing of social distancing rules amid spiking COVID-19 infections, and speed up the administration of booster shots and secure more hospital beds over the next four weeks. 

Moon made the remarks while presiding over a COVID-19 response meeting, making it clear that the government will not wind down its first-phase measures aimed at returning to normalcy despite a jump in serious cases and infections, and concerns about the omicron variant.

“Hospital beds are in a tight supply as the number of new patients and critically ill patients is on the rise,” Moon said. “However, we can’t retreat to the past by reversing the gradual return to normal life.” 

South Korea has seen a sharp jump in daily coronavirus infections after the government started its first phase of the “living with COVID-19” scheme this month.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration was going to further reduce COVID protocols in December as part of its Living with COVID strategy. However, the rise in serious cases and deaths has put a halt to their timeline. The government is going to instead focus on booster shots and getting more hospital beds available.