South Korea to Shut Down all Ski Areas through January 3rd

South Korea Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun recently announced it has closed its ski areas and winter tourist attractions from December 24th to January 3rd to help contain the spread of the nation’s third wave of COVID-19. This is one of the busiest parts of ski season and will contribute to slowing the spread in South Korea.

South Korea has 21 ski resorts.

South Korea is the 4th largest economy in Asia.

In addition to keeping ski areas closed for the holidays, South Korea has extended a ban on gatherings of 5 or more people. South Korea is primarily under a Level 2 social distancing order, with the capital at Level 2.5. The country is hesitant to advance to Level 3 social distancing (their highest), as it has the potential for stronger impacts on the economy. The country has been testing around 100,000 people per day to help slow the spread.

South Korea has had a total of 55,902 cases and 793 deaths since the start of the pandemic in January. South Korea is reaching its highest daily case numbers so far with some days in the last week reaching over 1,000 new cases. Approximately 70% of the nations cases are coming from the capitol city, Seoul.