S. Korean defense ministry asks KDCA to review no-mask rules

Aug 30, 2021, 09:13 am

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Source: People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Jo Myung-hee’s Office

AsiaToday reporter Lee Jang-won

It has been confirmed that the Ministry of National Defense reviewed measures to ease quarantine rules, such as lifting mask mandates for some military service members amid rising COVID-19 vaccination rate, and notified the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) to review the measures. Both the military and the quarantine authorities, who have been at odds over the rules, are expected to be embroiled in a controversy again.

In an undisclosed document “The review of preemptive quarantine mitigation measures to be applied after vaccination is completed in the military” obtained Sunday by People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Jo Myung-hee, a member of the National Defense Committee, it was confirmed that the defense ministry’s health policy division was reviewing the pilot implementation of the eased quarantine guidelines.

According to the document, the pilot program would be carried out for three weeks from the end of August to mid-September centered on soldiers under the age of 30 who have been fully vaccinated, and to be expanded to the entire military after the quarantine risk assessment. One of the eased measures when herd immunity was formed within the military included lifting mask mandates both indoors and outdoors. It also included lifting restrictions on the number of people in religious activities, military sports facilities, and shower rooms.

“We will establish quarantine mitigation measures focusing on areas of military activity where there is little interaction with the private sector. We will remove uncertainty through reviews by experts, such as the KDCA, and expand it to the entire military through a pilot project,” the defense ministry said in the document.

In particular, the defense ministry reportedly sent the document to the General Coordination Team of the Central Quarantine Countermeasures Headquarters under the KDCA on August 18 and requested a review. After the reports that the defense ministry would introduce the pilot herd immunity project, the KDCA had said, “We have not discussed it with the defense ministry,” provoking controversy. The KDCA has not reportedly responded to the document as it was under internal review.

What’s also controversial is that the document revealed by Jo’s office clearly states the specific time and target of the pilot project. When PPP lawmaker Ha Tae-kyung revealed Friday that President Moon Jae-in had directly ordered the no-mask test on military personnel, the defense ministry refuted the statement, saying, “It is obviously not true,” and strongly opposed the expression “in vivo experiment.”

However, criticisms are expected to continue as the ministry had planned to push the pilot project on soldiers under 30, who are mostly general soldiers. The government did not clearly respond to whether the president had directly ordered it or not, however it was confirmed that the phrase “according to the direction of the president” was specified in the document.

In response, Cheong Wa Dae said it was intended to confirm the effectiveness of vaccines and to review the normalization of military life. “There are quite a lot of misunderstandings,” said Park Soo-hyun, senior Cheong Wa Dae secretary for public communication, during an interview on Friday. “Since nearly 94% of military personnel have been vaccinated, we wanted to say that there must be research and attempts to normalize military life.”

#defense ministry #KDCA #no mask