Lee Jae-myung: "Religious Facilities Will Face Assembly Restrictions if 2-Meter Distancing and Other Measures Not Observed"

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hoon] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 11th that Governor Lee Jae-myung has reached an agreement with the Christian community to implement assembly restrictions at religious facilities if conditions such as maintaining 2-meter distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are not met.

Governor Lee held an emergency press conference at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office regarding COVID-19 prevention and religious facility assemblies, stating, "The most important task is to find reasonable measures to prevent infection spread, not to regulate. Regulation is not the purpose."

Earlier that day, Governor Lee held an emergency meeting with about 10 individuals including the leadership of the Gyeonggi Christian Council and pastors of major churches in the province at the provincial government's situation room to discuss restrictions on religious assemblies to prevent COVID-19 spread.

At the meeting, Gyeonggi Province and the Christian community agreed that assemblies could be held if the following measures were implemented: ▲fever checks for event participants ▲use of hand sanitizers ▲wearing of masks ▲maintaining a distance of 2 meters or more during assemblies ▲disinfection of facilities before and after assemblies.

Maintaining 2-meter distancing during assemblies is virtually impossible for large churches with high congregation numbers, making online worship services inevitable. In essence, while maintaining the existing recommendation for online worship, the province has smoothly reached an agreement with the Christian community to allow small churches where online worship is practically difficult to conduct assemblies provided thorough quarantine measures are implemented, with the ability to issue assembly restrictions if measures are not met.

The province will make online worship the basic recommendation, and for churches where holding online services is impossible, it plans to investigate this weekend whether voluntary measures are being implemented. If voluntary measures are not carried out, the province will restrict assemblies at those facilities starting the following week.

Following the press conference, Governor Lee posted on social media, "I strongly agree with a pastor's remark that in Korean Christian history, there has never been a case of receiving an administrative order regarding worship. I hope that all religious organizations will voluntarily implement infection prevention measures so that administrative orders will not need to be issued."

He added, "I deeply appreciate your understanding of the administrative agency's position to prepare for the worst-case scenario and the wise advice you have provided during these difficult times for the provincial government."