Restaurants, cafes and other businesses will face a strengthened penalty of a 10-day closure for just a one-time violation of new social distancing rules, the prime minister said Tuesday.

The new enforcement regulation set to go into effect Thursday is "a strong law that warrants a shutdown of 10 days for even a single violation of distancing rules," Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said during an interagency meeting to review the greater Seoul region's virus situation.

The statement came as South Korea is scheduled to adopt renewed social distancing guidelines starting Thursday that are more relaxed than the current one. The program was initially scheduled to take effect last week but was delayed by one week due to a surge in new virus infections in the wider Seoul area, home to half of the country's 51.34 million population.   

"We are well aware that small businesses and merchants are going through tough times, but we must win the fight against the pandemic in order to find other breakthroughs," Kim said.

Kim also asked for the public to strictly follow the country's antivirus measures, stressing that the battle against the pandemic "would ultimately be determined by the compliance (of virus rules) in the field." (Yonhap)