S. Korean airports busy again for holiday weekend
- 4 years ago
황금연휴 2일째 김포공항에서 출발하는 휴가객
New daily cases of COVID-19 in South Korea have been in the single digits for the last few days.
It comes just in time for the long weekend here in this country.
Yesterday was a public holiday; today is May Day and next Tuesday, Children's Day is also a holiday in Korea.
Coupled with the beautiful weather, travellers are back at airports, eager to get out of the house after all these weeks. But, health authorities have a warning.
Our Kim Doyeon is at Gimpo International. Gimpo International Airport was busy on Friday, the second day of a long weekend that for some people will last until next Tuesday.
Located in Seoul, Gimpo does serve international destinations, but because many countries have closed their borders, its domestic flights are busier.
In fact, a lot of people are on their way to South Korea's resort island of Jeju.
Today alone, there are around 240 flights to the island from all airports nationwide, and some passengers say that at this point they're not too worried about COVID19.
"We've gone through a lot recently with COVID-19, like the outbreak connected to the Shincheonji church. But we've done well to lower the number of cases in time for the long weekend."
"South Korea is good at quarantine, so we're not worried about going to Jeju."
Though the passengers are wearing their face masks, social distancing does not seem to be top priority for many of them.
The KCDC, however, has extended its social distancing guidelines to May 5th, which is all the way through the long weekend.
Whether the agency decides to loosen those measures to what it calls "distancing in daily life" will be decided in a meeting this Sunday.
The agency has been pleading with people to continue social distancing when they travel because this is a turning point in the fight against COVID19.
Healthcare experts say if the country can get through the next few days without any spikes, it should be in a good position to move onto the next phase in getting the country back to normal.
KIM Do-yeon, Arirang News
New daily cases of COVID-19 in South Korea have been in the single digits for the last few days.
It comes just in time for the long weekend here in this country.
Yesterday was a public holiday; today is May Day and next Tuesday, Children's Day is also a holiday in Korea.
Coupled with the beautiful weather, travellers are back at airports, eager to get out of the house after all these weeks. But, health authorities have a warning.
Our Kim Doyeon is at Gimpo International. Gimpo International Airport was busy on Friday, the second day of a long weekend that for some people will last until next Tuesday.
Located in Seoul, Gimpo does serve international destinations, but because many countries have closed their borders, its domestic flights are busier.
In fact, a lot of people are on their way to South Korea's resort island of Jeju.
Today alone, there are around 240 flights to the island from all airports nationwide, and some passengers say that at this point they're not too worried about COVID19.
"We've gone through a lot recently with COVID-19, like the outbreak connected to the Shincheonji church. But we've done well to lower the number of cases in time for the long weekend."
"South Korea is good at quarantine, so we're not worried about going to Jeju."
Though the passengers are wearing their face masks, social distancing does not seem to be top priority for many of them.
The KCDC, however, has extended its social distancing guidelines to May 5th, which is all the way through the long weekend.
Whether the agency decides to loosen those measures to what it calls "distancing in daily life" will be decided in a meeting this Sunday.
The agency has been pleading with people to continue social distancing when they travel because this is a turning point in the fight against COVID19.
Healthcare experts say if the country can get through the next few days without any spikes, it should be in a good position to move onto the next phase in getting the country back to normal.
KIM Do-yeon, Arirang News