South Korea President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has invited 41,000 guests to attend his inauguration ceremony on May 10, Yonhap News reported on Tuesday, noting Yoon’s team recently expanded his guestlist beyond what was previously planned in light of South Korea dropping almost all Chinese coronavirus-related social gathering restrictions on Monday.
Yoon’s inauguration ceremony will take place on May 10 at a square in front of South Korea’s National Assembly building in Seoul. The outdoor space has a capacity of 50,000.
“Some 41,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony, including political leaders [and] citizens,” Yoon’s transition team told reporters on April 19.
An inaugural ceremony committee overseeing the event “had earlier planned to invite around 10,000 people in line with earlier COVID-19 guidelines,” the transition team said Tuesday.
The committee chose to invite an additional 31,000 people to Yoon’s swearing-in ceremony after South Korea’s federal government lifted nearly all of the country’s pandemic-related social distancing restrictions, save for a mask mandate, on April 18.
South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party celebrates with party members and lawmakers at the National Assembly on March 10, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Lee Jin-Man – Pool/Getty Images)
“The midnight business curfew and a 10-person cap on the size of gatherings will be lifted starting Monday [April 18],” South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said when announcing the development on April 15, as quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The development has allowed South Koreans to enjoy life without most social distancing restrictions for the first time since March 2020.
Remaining prohibitions on “eating inside facilities such as cinemas will also be lifted from April 25,” AFP reported on April 15.
A lingering requirement that South Koreans wear sanitary masks both indoors and outdoors will stay in place for now, though Prime Minister Kim said on April 15 that his government would reconsider the policy in the coming weeks.
“Indoor mask wearing will be unavoidable for a considerable time,” Kim said. “With regard to outdoor mask wearing, which poses a relatively lower risk, we will decide after two weeks based on a review of the virus situation.”
Kim further explained that South Korean health officials decided to drop most remaining pandemic restrictions after witnessing a steady drop in the nation’s new daily cases of the Chinese coronavirus.
“The omicron has shown signs of weakening significantly after peaking in the third week of March,” Kim told reporters on April 15. “As the virus situation is stabilized and capabilities of our medical system are confirmed, the government decided to boldly lift social distancing measures.”
Yonhap on April 18 described South Korea’s Chinese coronavirus caseload as “receding.” The news agency also observed that South Korea’s fatality rate for the disease was “0.13 percent.”
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