A notice of guidelines that entertainment facilities should follow is posted at the entrance of a nightclub in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 8, 2020. South Korea on Friday advised nightclubs and similar entertainment venues to close for a month and may delay the reopening of schools after linking more than a dozen new coronavirus infections to clubgoers in the capital. The sign reads: “Guidelines that entertainment facilities should follow.” (Ryu Hyung-seok/Yonhap via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea — Seoul has shut down more than 2,100 nightclubs, hostess bars, and discos after dozens of infections were linked to clubgoers who went out last weekend as the country relaxed social distancing guidelines.
The measures imposed by Mayor Park Won-soon on Saturday came after the national government urged entertainment venues around the nation to close or otherwise enforce anti-virus measures, including distancing, temperature checks, keeping customer lists and requiring employees to wear masks.
Park said that the entry bans on the facilities will be maintained until the city concludes the infections risks as meaningfully lowered.
South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier said 18 fresh cases were reported in the 24 hours to midnight Friday, all but one of them linked to a 29-year-old man who visited three clubs in Seoul’s Itaewon district last Saturday before testing positive on Tuesday.
But Park said 16 more cases were confirmed in Seoul alone in the following hours since. He said this brought the total number of infections linked to clubgoers to 40 — 27 in Seoul, 12 in neighboring Incheon and Gyeonggi province towns, and one in the southern port city of Busan.
The KCDC, which complies data from local governments, couldn’t immediately confirm Park’s numbers.
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