Gyeonggi Province Extends Administrative Ban on Gatherings at Entertainment Venues Until 19th

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] As COVID-19 infection cases increase in unpredictable venues and concerns grow over further community spread, Gyeonggi Province has extended an administrative ban on gatherings at direct sales companies and entertainment venues.

From the 6th through the 19th of this month, Gyeonggi Province issued an administrative order for "Extension of Gathering Ban for Direct Sales Businesses and Other Operations to Prevent COVID-19 Spread" targeting direct sales companies in the province over a two-week period.
Previously, the province had imposed a gathering ban at these venues from the 20th of last month through the 5th of this month.

The gathering ban targets a total of 4,849 companies, including 10 multi-level marketing businesses, 755 sponsored direct sales companies, and 4,084 direct sales companies. During the designated period, these businesses are prohibited from conducting a series of collective activities including group promotions, group training, and group sales events.
In addition, the province extended the administrative order for multi-use facilities such as entertainment venues by another two weeks through the 19th. This is the second extension since the gathering ban was first imposed on these facilities on the 8th of last month.

The gathering ban targets 895 venues including 476 entertainment venues (clubs, room salons, stand bars, cabarets, song clubs, song bars, etc.), 63 cola-tech lounges, 268 taverns, and 88 coin karaoke rooms.
The province explained that based on a count as of the 3rd, among 8,374 multi-use facilities such as entertainment venues in the entire province, only 895 venues were designated as gathering ban targets, excluding 7,479 venues that submitted pledge agreements pledging compliance with quarantine rules and other management conditions.

The province allows gatherings for businesses that submitted pledge agreements pledging compliance with management conditions such as quarantine rule adherence to the municipal-level gathering ban review committees for approval, or will submit and receive approval in the future, on the condition that they comply with the requirements. In case of rule violations, the province plans to immediately apply the gathering ban and penalty provisions.
Management conditions include: ▲utilizing a visitor management system through mobile QR code authentication ▲installing CCTV at facility entrances ▲limiting capacity to one person per 4㎡ of permitted area or one person per 1㎡ of customer use area (halls, rooms, etc.) for highly congested facilities ▲maintaining 1m spacing between tables, conducting ventilation and disinfection at least twice daily ▲checking for fever and respiratory symptoms at entrances and confirming recent overseas travel history ▲mandatory mask-wearing by all business owners, employees, and users ▲maintaining minimum 1m to 2m distance between users within facilities, etc.

An official at Gyeonggi Province stated, "The infection spread extends from the Seoul metropolitan area and Daejeon and Gwangju to Daegu, with community-acquired cases increasing again," and added, "As infection cases continue to occur due to close contact between users in unpredictable venues, we have decided to extend the administrative order."