South Korea has ended contact tracing. Then what are QR check-ins for?

South Korea has switched to a do-it-yourself contact tracing scheme as the omicron variant changes how the outbreak is handled. And yet people are still required to scan personal QR codes that have so far allowed contact tracers to collect information about exactly where they visited and when. Starting Monday, those who test positive for COVID-19 will need to contact trace themselves through an online questionnaire that asks where the last places they visited were, whether they live with anyon

Feb. 9, 2022

Putting South Korea’s smallest city on the map

Guri, Gyeonggi province, has an area of ​​33.29 square kilometers, making it the smallest city in South Korea. It has a population of around 193,000 as of October last year. The map of this city is changing slowly but surely. The size of the projected population of the city by 2035 is around 235,000. This is an increase of more than 20 percent from now. Guri Mayor Ahn Seung-nam is seeking population growh and regional development through large-scale development projects. Guri Han Riverside

Feb. 9, 2022

Suwon pursues people-centered governance, inclusive social development

Suwon City has turned into a more livable and safer place with people-centered governance and inclusive social development as the major driving force. The city has implemented policies to address entrenched marginalization, empower vulnerable populations including women, children, and the elderly and infirm, and ensure equal opportunities for them. Suwon, the most populous city among 31 cities in Gyeonggi Province, has pursued a people-centered approach and taken steps toward becoming a more

Feb. 9, 2022

Make Guri South Korea’s ‘happiness capital’

Mayor Ahn Seung-nam of Guri, Gyeonggi Province, is known as “the happy preacher.” He uses the word “happy” or “happiness” a lot ever since taking office as the 16th mayor of Guri in July 2018. “Who wouldn’t want to be happy? Most people aspire to be happy. Even if they may not be at the moment, people search for future happiness,” said Ahn, on why he emphasizes happiness so much. As Ahn took office, he put forward “Guri, a special

Feb. 9, 2022

Business mogul Chung Mong-joon donates $1m to honor Kissinger

Chung Mong-joon, honorary chairman of Asan Institute for Policy Studies, has donated $1 million to honor the work of Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, a renowned scholar in international relations, the institute said Wednesday. Half of the fund was given to the Center for Strategy and International Studies in Washington, DC, and the other half to the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. An influential realist scholar

Feb. 9, 2022

Suwon mayor sets example of swift, decisive leadership in COVID-19 response

  On Jan. 22, 2020, at 4:11 p.m., Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young took the first step to respond to COVID-19 through his social network service. It was the Lunar New Year holiday, and other heads of regional and local municipalities were resting at home. But Yeom foresaw the ripple effect of the coronavirus. “A suspected patient who visited Wuhan, China and has fever or respiratory symptoms must first seek counseling and treatment at a screening clinic, not a hospital emergency room,&rdq

Feb. 9, 2022

Seoul's daily COVID-19 infections hit 10,000 for 1st time

Seoul's daily tally of new COVID-19 infections reached 11,682 on Wednesday, the first ever figure over 10,000 since the country's first case reported two years ago, according to city officials. The daily COVID-19 tally in the capital city has been growing rapidly with the fast spread of omicron variant, hitting the 5,000 level for the first time a week earlier and repeatedly renewing its record to surpass the 8,000 level last Saturday. Of the latest total, 11,630 cases were locally tra

Feb. 9, 2022

Self-driving taxies set to go into service in western Seoul

The first batch of self-driving taxies in Seoul will go into service in the city's western region this week, the city government said Wednesday. Four autonomous cars will start providing public taxi services in the Sangam-dong district in western Seoul on Thursday, covering two separate transportation routes. Any passenger can call one of the taxies on the smartphone application TAP! at the fixed fare of 2,000 won ($1.67) per ride, automatically payable on the application. Circling two separate

Feb. 9, 2022

Military reports 416 more COVID-19 cases

South Korea's military on Wednesday reported 416 additional COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload among its domestic personnel to 7,158. The new cases included 216 from the Army, 129 from the Air Force, 27 from the Marine Corps, 26 from units under the direct control of the defense ministry, 15 from the Navy and three from the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command. Currently, 2,613 military personnel are under treatment. Meanwhile, the military reported no additional virus cases from the N

Feb. 9, 2022

New COVID-19 cases soar to all-time high of nearly 50,000 amid raging omicron

South Korea's daily COVID-19 infections rose sharply to hit another high of nearly 50,000 on Wednesday amid the fast spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant across the nation. The country reported 49,567 new COVID-19 infections, including 49,402 local cases, raising the total to 1,131,248, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). It marked the first time that the daily tally exceeded the 40,000 level. The previous daily record high was 38,689 recorded Sun

Feb. 9, 2022

Police to operate smartwatch location tracking system to protect victims from violent crimes

Police will officially operate a smartwatch system that can find almost the exact location of the wearer in emergencies starting later this month to better respond to potential crimes, officials said Wednesday. The location tracking system using smartwatches will first be put into operation by police in the southeastern city of Ulsan and the central North Chungcheong Province on Thursday and expanded to other regions across the country starting Feb. 22 unless problems occur. The smartwatch, whic

Feb. 9, 2022

[Newsmaker] Schools’ new COVID-19 rules clouded with uncertainty

Teacher unions are raising criticism of the Ministry of Education, accusing it of putting the burden of COVID-19 management on schools and teachers. On Monday, the Education Ministry announced that schools will move to “normalcy” in attendance measures for the new semester, flexibly responding to virus situations. Under the new measure, schools can change their attendance policy based on the new four-stage plan suggested by the ministry. Teachers’ associations, however, a

Feb. 8, 2022

Virus surge raises self-test shortage fears

The recent surge in the number of COVID-19 cases has increased the demand for self-test kits, and is causing alarm as there are signs of another supply shortage reminiscent of the mask scarcity seen two years ago. Sales of self-test kits at convenience stores have soared since Jan. 26 when the country’s daily confirmed cases broke 10,000 for the first time. Some stores quickly ran out of stock as the supply could not keep up. A similar pattern has been seen at pharmacies. “Since

Feb. 8, 2022

Asan Medical Center to open infectious disease facility

Asan Medical Center, one of South Korea's five major hospitals, said Tuesday it will open a separate infectious disease facility to better battle the pandemic. The Center for Infection Control (CIC), located next to the general hospital's main wing in Seoul, will begin operations Thursday. It marks the first time for a private hospital to open a separate building wholly dedicated to infectious diseases. "We will actively work to overcome the national crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic,"

Feb. 8, 2022

S. Korea‘s daily COVID-19 cases stay above 35,000 for four straight days

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 infections stayed above 35,000 for a fourth straight day for the 24 hours of Monday, government data showed Tuesday. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country’s daily COVID-19 cases for the day marked 36,719, raising the total to 1,081,681. The daily infections Monday was a twofold increase from the same day of the prior week, when the country’s COVID-19 cases reached 18,340. The figure is also around four times

Feb. 8, 2022

Subway disrupted as disability groups continue protest

An association of disability groups in South Korea is continuing their protest actions at subway stations, disrupting operations during the morning rush hour for the fourth weekday in a row. On Tuesday, some members of the Solidarity against Disability Discrimination staged a rally at Chungmuro Station at around 7:30 a.m., demanding the government do more to help disabled people. “The protest by the disability rights group, which was held on the morning of Feb. 8, ended at 10:18 a.m.,

Feb. 8, 2022

Suspect in notorious double murder tests positive for COVID-19

A suspect in a notorious double murder case has tested positive for COVID-19 at a Seoul detention facility where a large number of cluster infections have been reported, officials said Tuesday. The 56-year-old suspect, Kang Yoon-seong, was confirmed to be COVID-19 positive at Dongbu Detention Center in eastern Seoul where he has been under detention on charges of killing two women in August. Officials said the Seoul Eastern District Court handling Kang's murder case has decided to delay a jur

Feb. 8, 2022

S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases above 35,000 for 4th day amid omicron woes

South Korea's new COVID-19 infections stayed at more than 35,000 cases for four days in a row Tuesday as the highly infectious omicron variant has become the country's dominant strain.  The country reported 36,719 new COVID-19 infections, including 36,619 local cases, raising the total to 1,081,681, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The accumulated virus caseload surpassed a grim milestone of 1 million on Sunday, two years after South Korea reported its

Feb. 8, 2022

Police investigate gang fight in North Jeolla Province

South Korean police have launched an investigation into a fight between two gangs at a funeral in North Jeolla Province, it said Monday. According to the North Jeolla Provincial Police Agency, two gangs got into a fight at the funeral of a former triad member held in Iksan around 2 a.m. Sunday. Police officers were dispatched after local police received a call from a citizen who had witnessed the brawl. But the involved parties had already fled the scene before the officers arrived, accordin

Feb. 7, 2022

[Newsmaker] Korea switches to self-reported contact tracing as COVID-19 positivity rate hits record

As the omicron variant spreads rapidly in South Korea, related figures have also hit fresh highs, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Monday. As of midnight Sunday, the percentage of tests that were positive out of all tests administered in the country reached 26 percent, up 5.2 percentage points from the previous day’s 20.8 percent. This means that 1 out of 4 people who received a PCR test got a positive result for COVID-19. The figure has been increasing r

Feb. 7, 2022