Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters). A South Korean court ruled Friday that teenagers and large stores should temporarily be excluded from COVID-19 vaccination pass mandates in Seoul. This ruling is part of a growing legal battle over Asia’s most stringent vaccine policies.

Last week, a group of 1,000 ordinary citizens, doctors and professors filed an injunction against Seoul’s mayor. The mandates required vaccination passes to enter most public facilities.

The capital’s administrative court ordered that all department stores, supermarkets, shops and other businesses with more than 3000 square meters (32,300 square feet) of area should be exempted.

According to the court, teenagers who use Seoul-based facilities should not be subject to this mandate.

According to the ministry of health, it regrets making this decision. It will respond after Monday’s meeting between agencies. Officials stated that the policy was meant to protect those not immunized, and not force or discriminate against them.

This ruling is the latest in a heated legal fight over South Korea’s vaccination mandates. Last week, the court ordered https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skorea-appeal-court-order-exempting-private-schools-vaccine-passes-2022-01-05 private education facilities such as cram schools, tuition centres and study cafes be exempted. After the court’s decision was overturned, the government appealed.

In a ruling, the court ruled that the mandate to large grocery shops is excessive. It cited their necessity for daily life and low risk of transmitting coronavirus.

The mandate was also rejected by teenagers because of the low incidence of severe illness and death from COVID-19.

On Friday, the government increased social distancing restrictions for three weeks more amid concern about Omicron coronavirus variant.

After being relaxed six weeks earlier under the “living with CoVID-19” scheme and as new patients and seriously ill patients threatened to flood the healthcare system, curbs were reinstated a month later.

Since mid-December’s peak, which was almost 8,000, daily counts have fallen to 4,542. However, this week seems to be the bottom for this downward trend. With 6,259 people dying, total infections rose to 683 566,

Extended curbs also include a 9 PM curfew at bars, restaurants and cafes.

Omicron now has 20% of all domestically transmitted infection in its first two weeks. It will soon be dominant, potentially sending unprecedented daily counts up to 20,000 per day in February and 30,000 for March with no stricter controls, officials stated.

Lunar New Year breaks begin on January 29, and typically, tens to millions of Koreans travel across the country for family events during one of their main holidays.

Nearly 95% have had their vaccines completed and over 50% have had a booster shot.