S.Korean PM says to enact law covering loss of microbusiness owners from COVID-19

APD NEWS

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South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Wednesday that the country planned to financially help microbusiness owners, who were forced to stop or halt business under the tightened quarantine rules to tackle the COVID-19 resurgence here.

Chung told a press conference with foreign correspondents in Seoul that the government was preparing to legislate on covering the loss of small-business owners from the COVID-19 pandemic in accordance with the constitution.

By the country's constitution, a government is required to enact a bill covering the loss of people when their rights to property are restrained for the public interest.

The government has kept its five-tier social-distancing guidelines at the second-highest level for about two months, ordering brick-and-mortar businesses to stop or halt operation amid the COVID-19 resurgence here.

Chung recently raised the need for the legalization of the government compensation for the loss, which mom-and-pop businesses have suffered, and President Moon Jae-in supported it.

The prime minister admitted that the government's financial assistance to small-business owners may not be enough to cover the sufferings, which they have been enduring, vowing to provide compensation that can cover their actual loss.

Earlier this month, the government began to distribute its third round of relief checks, which range from one million won (900 U.S. dollars) to three million won (2,700 U.S. dollars), for some 2.8 million small-business owners and self-employed people.

Meanwhile, Chung opened a possibility for South Korea to offer COVID-19 vaccines to countries that failed to secure enough vaccines.

The country planned to offer COVID-19 vaccines to all of its 52 million population free of charge, aiming to form a herd immunity no later than November.

The government inked deals to secure COVID-19 vaccine doses for 56 million people, including doses for 10 million each from AstraZeneca and Pfizer, 20 million from Moderna, six million from Janssen and 10 million from the COVAX facility led by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Negotiations have been underway to purchase additional COVID-19 vaccines for 20 million people from U.S. drugmaker Novavax.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)