The UK declared that it would relax Covid rules starting on July 19, 2021, which means its social dancing restrictions are removed. Denmark unlocked Covid rules on Sept 12, for the first time among EU countries. Singapore, too, announced the gradual resumption of the ordinary life before Covid-19. This means that some countries have decided to shift to a “Living With Covid” system. The Living With Covid system is to embrace Covid-19 as a common illness and remove strict regulations such as social distancing, travel prohibition, and entry limits for restaurants.

Here, two questions arise in our minds.

“Will a With Covid system give work effectively and result in the successful resumption to the ordinary life?”

“When will Korea adopt this system?”

Let’s take a look at the examples of the ‘With Covid’ systems abroad and how Korea will apply this system.

The ‘With Covid’ system brings several policies to help society operate normally even with the presence of Covid-19.

- Relaxation of Social-Gathering Regulations

Due to Covid-19, most people have decided to postpone important events such as weddings and funeral memorial services because they are only allowed with a small number of people attending or not at all. There is a limitation in the number of people when they gather even when going to a café or watching a movie in the theater. This has created a great deal of inconvenience and anger because people must give up on their social gatherings and meet online, which makes it harder to communicate with one another and to enjoy social events. Furthermore, most countries have allowed only a few people to enter stores at one time and businesses to operate only within certain hours, decided by their governments. These restrictions have led to enormous economic loss and resistance by business owners. With high vaccination rates and attempting to calm those angry owners down, some countries have decided to reduce or even remove restrictions on businesses as a response to the high expectation of doing so by business owners.

- Ending School Closures

Covid-19 has adversely affected not only social life and the economy but also education. To protect students from infection, governments have decided to close schools and have them offer online classes. Of course, online sessions have limited access to children and therefore a lot of students are suffering from academic failures. For example, some first graders have a hard time reading and writing words, while some high school students play games during their online classes. These cases show the need for instruction or guidance to be in person. As fewer infection cases are expected, some governments announced the resumption of classes.

- Vaccine Passports

A passport is a document that entitles the owner to travel under the protection of the country by which the document was issued. A vaccine passport will have the exact same role. Despite high vaccination rates, which cannot allow people to move around without restrictions, either internally or internationally. Nevertheless, it seems difficult for those countries to hold on to their restrictions because most of the citizens were expecting their freedoms back after their vaccination. It is the vaccine passport that will solve this stubborn situation. Only those who have a vaccine passport, proof that one has tested negative for Covid19 or been vaccinated, may visit places and even go abroad without restrictions. You may get your passport both digitally and in print.

These policies and the results of this ‘With Covid’ system differ depending on countries and regions. What has happened after applying this system to different countries?

England started a Living With Covid system at the end of July when the delta variant was spreading. It has removed lockdowns and even abandoned vaccine passport plans, which means it was very confident in the success of the system. All the restrictions on businesses, schools, and social gatherings have been lifted. Furthermore, it also has decided to introduce a two-tier system, which allows only those who are from countries with a green light label to visit the country, meaning Covid-19 is not widespread in those countries. However, England was not able to avoid the influence of the delta variant; As of October 5, it has recorded an average of 28,000 new Covid-19 cases daily.

Singapore is the first country to adopt a ‘’With Covid’ system in Asia. It focuses more on the severity of infections and hospitalizations than the number of daily cases and it enables vaccinated people to eat inside restaurants and to socially gather up to five in a group. However, it has faced a rapid increase in infection cases due to the delta variant infection and thus stopped further lifting on Covid-19 regulations. As of October 5, it reported an average of 3,500 new Covid-19 cases daily.

Denmark declared their ‘With Covid system on Sept. 19th, allowing its citizens even without vaccine passports to go in and out of public places without masks and to have large social gatherings. Denmark has entered into a successful With Covid system, with only a 0.7% infection rate. The key to dealing with Covid-19 is, according to the CEO of Healthcare Denmark Jakob Skaarup Nielsen, to have a proper plan: to apply it at the right time, consider the rate of vaccination, breakthrough infection rates, and the lethality of COVID-19, and to try to minimize the number of infection cases.

How Will Korea Apply Its System?

The Korean government also realizes the need for a ‘With Covid system’, for its citizens are hurting due to the extended COVID-19 situation. The government has currently announced that COVID-19 may be regarded as the normal flu. This means that the strict restrictions of social distancing will be weakened down to Level Two or Three, and it will be raised to Level four again if COVID-19 spreads too rapidly. Moreover, the introduction of a vaccine passport is on the table. Meanwhile, it will be difficult to remove mandatory mask-wearing because it is expected and desired by most citizens, given a possible future breakthrough and variant infections.

Controversy over Korea’s With Covid System Plans

Even though it is expected for Korea to move into a post-Covid-19 mode by most citizens, there are some controversies rising about the adoption of the ‘With Covid’ system.

First, there are some people who argue that it is too early to adopt a ‘With Covid’ system right now. As the presented cases of other countries show, most of them, except for Denmark, have failed to apply the ‘With Covid’ system without high infection rates. On the other hand, others claim that two years of social distancing has done too much harm to many parts of life, especially the economy and education, and that they have waited enough. The Korean government claims that a rapid increase in newly confirmed cases is expected at first after introducing the ‘With Covid’ system and that citizens must understand that it would be a necessary part of the resumption process to ordinary life. It also assures its citizens that those cases will occur with a low fatality rate, which is proved by the studies regarding Covid vaccines.

In addition, one policy that has raised a lot of concerns is that it might be a way to repress citizens: Vaccine Passports. People with certain underlying medical conditions must not get vaccinated for they might suffer from fatal adverse effects. Especially those who have shown any symptoms of anaphylaxis, a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, are not allowed to get vaccinated. Others choose to resist getting vaccinated for the fear of side effects, including even death. These people assert that vaccine passports will be a form of discrimination because they will not be able to freely move around like those with a vaccine passport will and that their decision should be respected. Meanwhile, the proponents of vaccine passports point out that those who cannot get vaccinated may show a negative result of a PCR test. They believe that the resumption of normal life cannot be postponed with the enormous losses due to restrictions.

Whether the system will be adopted or not, citizens are expected to follow regulations until the complete end of COVID-19.

황영선  h8win8@g.hongik.ac.kr

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