In accordance with the government’s changing COVID guidelines, KAIST has announced several adjustments to its COVID policy. School and government policies have been accommodating the gradual decrease in Korea’s COVID cases since mid-March.
The South Korean government announced the end of social distancing measures starting from April 18, with indoor dining restrictions ending on April 25. Previous social distancing measures included restrictions on business hours, limits on private gatherings (maximum of 10 participants), limits on public gatherings (maximum of 299 participants), and other restrictions including those on religious activities such as limiting participants to 70% of the maximum capacity and prohibition of dining. On April 21, KAIST encouraged continued vigilance against the disease even with the lifted social distancing measures, especially in light of the total number of cases in KAIST surpassing 3,000. Among the basic preventative measures were completing vaccinations, wearing masks properly, and periodic ventilation and disinfection.
The KAIST Office of Student Affairs and Policy announced on April 18 that the policy of opting-in offline classes will end two weeks after the midterms week of this semester. All courses, excluding courses announced to be face-to-face-only since the course registration period, will continue to be hybrid courses by default. However, after May 6, students will no longer be able to take hybrid classes online without special reasons. Only students with unavoidable reasons related to COVID or an inability to enter Korea will be allowed to take courses online.
Periodic testing guidelines were also modified. Instead of setting a recommended interval of one week between tests, there is no longer a set interval. In addition, test kits will no longer be collected in various school dorms at specific times of the day, but rather at the on-campus testing station from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Mondays to Thursdays and from 10 a. m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays.
Additional changes were implemented on May 2, from which point wearing masks outdoors was not required, except in outdoor multi-purpose facilities with 50 or more people present, or when there are difficulties in being one meter apart from people with COVID-19 symptoms or high-risk individuals. Nevertheless, people are recommended to continue wearing masks to prevent infections.
Starting from May 2, all entrances to the Academic Cultural Complex (E9) were opened, while the Cultural Building will resume pre-COVID operations. Students are still required to adhere to COVID guidelines including wearing masks and hand sanitization. Sports facilities at KAIST like swimming pools and the West Stadium (W2) also resumed operations on May 2, while gyms within dorms restarted unlimited operation on April 26.
Meanwhile, Korea’s COVID cases have shown a decline after hitting its peak at 621,328 on March 17. From 9,962,498 cases in March, the monthly cumulative COVID cases in Korea dropped to 4,143,373 in April. Meanwhile, the seven-day average COVID cases in KAIST haven’t exceeded 10 since the start of May. Along with Korea, KAIST seems to be on a path towards full recovery from COVID, both in terms of the number of cases and the gradual return towards a fully-offline school, with the isolating effect of COVID-19 slowly losing its hold on the campus.