Monday, January 17, 2022

vaccine-pass mandate... lifted?

The Korea Times has this to say about the vaccine-pass mandate:

The government has made a U-turn over the enforcement of COVID-19 vaccine passes at large retailers and malls in the wake of a court ruling ordering the suspension of the vaccine mandate at the facilities.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced Monday that the vaccine pass on six types of multiuse facilities ― large retailers and department stores, study rooms, museums, libraries, cram schools and theaters ― will be lifted on Tuesday.

The authorities said these facilities have relatively lower risk of virus transmission as visitors can wear face masks properly there, adding that the vaccine mandate will remain in place at other higher-risk places such as eateries, cafes and indoor gyms.

My boss saw another article saying this applied to Seoul only. I don't get that impression from the Korea Times article, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn the news on this was being reported in a confusing way to us foreigners. I should go look at a Korean-language source.*

I didn't get to test out Costco and SSG Food Mart yet; it turned out to be a very lazy weekend. But maybe now, I won't need to.

I keep coming back to that idea I quoted a while back about failed countries and how, in a failed country, things are so unstable that you can never make long-range plans. When the rules keep changing, when everything is Calvinball, you can't know what to do.

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*The first line of this Hani article says the stoppage applies to the Seoul region.



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