Before dying of covid, he begged his followers to get vaccinated 1:25
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -
South Korea has become the latest country in the Asia Pacific region to consider abandoning its coronavirus eradication strategy, announcing plans to potentially lift covid-19 restrictions despite the increase in the number of cases.
Seoul is trying to control the country's fourth and largest covid-19 outbreak, with more than 2,100 new local infections reported in the past 24 hours, according to the Korea Disease Prevention and Control Agency (KDCA).
The Greater Seoul area remains under Level 4 restrictions, the harshest available, with gatherings of five or more people banned.
Authorities fear that the upcoming Korean Chuseok Thanksgiving holiday that begins on September 17 could make the outbreak worse.
However, despite the recent increase in cases, the president's office, Moon Jae-in, announced on Wednesday possible plans to lift the restrictions, once a sufficient number of the population is fully vaccinated.
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Covid vaccines in South Korea
Citing KDCA Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong, Moon's office said that once 80% of adults have received both doses, as well as 90% of people over the age of 60, the restrictions on daily life they could relax across the country.
South Korean Health Ministry official Son Young-rae said that with current vaccination rates, the target will likely be reached by the end of October.
As of Tuesday, nearly 71% of South Korean adults had received a vaccine, while about 42.6% were fully vaccinated.
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South Korea has reported 267,470 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic and the death toll now stands at 2,343.
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On the other hand, Singapore and Australia have already put forward plans to vaccinate a high percentage of their adult populations to limit hospitalizations and serious deaths from COVID-19, while removing the focus of eradicating all infections.
But Singapore has struggled to keep ccovid-19 cases low after removing restrictions, despite being one of the most vaccinated countries in the world.
On Monday, the head of Singapore's ccovid-19 task force, Lawrence Wong, warned that the restrictions may have to be reintroduced if the number of serious cases continues to rise.
Covid-19
