DILI, 12 july 2021 (TATOLI)-Director of the State Secretariat for Vocational and Employment Training (SEFOPE), Paulo Alves informed that the South Korean government temporarily suspended the delivery of workers, due to the increasing number of COVID-19 in South Korea.
“We have received information from the South Korean Government through the South Korean Minister of Labor that temporarily sending workers from Timor-Leste must be stopped due to the increasing number of new variants of COVID in South Korea,” said Alves to Journalist of TATOLI News Agency on monday.
This decision taken by the South Korean government and it was also applied to 16 countries included in the Employment Permit System, such as Uzbekistan, Philippines, Pakistan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos and Timor-Leste.
According to the South Korean News Agency (Yonhap), accessed today, South Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases rose by more than 1.000 for the sixth consecutive day monday despite fewer tests over the weekend, as the greater Seoul area, the hotbed for the recent spike in new infections, is placed under the toughest social distancing measures.
The country added 1.100 new COVID-19 cases, including 1.063 local infections, raising the total caseload to 169,146, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The tally compares with 1.324 tallied the previous day.
South Korea set a record high for daily cases Saturday with 1.378.
The country added one more COVID-19 death, raising the death toll to 2.044. The fatality rate came to 1.21 percent.
Over the past week, the average number of daily cases came to 992, up 51.5 percent from a week earlier.
Starting monday, the highest level of social distancing is being put in place for Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, which will run for two weeks.
For the past days, around 80 percent of the daily infections have been reported in the wider Seoul area, home to half of the country’s 51.3 million population, but non-Seoul areas, such as Busan, have seen a steady rise in new infections.
Among other restrictions, gatherings of more than two people are banned after 6 p.m., which is the strictest measure ever imposed by the country since it first reported a COVID-19 case in january 2020. Meetings of up to four people are allowed during the daytime.
The country had banned gatherings of more than four people for several months nationwide before lifting the restrictions for areas outside Seoul earlier this month.
Entertainment establishments, including night clubs and bars, are ordered to shut down in the capital area as well, while restaurants are allowed to have dine-in customers only until 10 p.m.
Weddings and funerals can only be attended by relatives, and demonstrations are restricted. The speed of treadmills at gyms must be kept at 6 kph or below.
Journalist: Camilio de Sousa
Editor: Rafy Belo
