Nowadays, coronavirus confirmed cases in South Korea are growing rapidly. According to the growth of coronavirus confirmed cases, the government is continuing to revise the COVID-19 guidelines. The government banned gatherings with more than four people, and they banned the business of indoor sports facilities.

However, the government did not ban the business of other industries, such as academies and taekwondo schools. The revised guidelines caused lots of criticisms. People criticized the unfairness of the guidelines made by the government. Also, many people and owner-operators appealed to the government by protesting. Therefore, the government revised the COVID-19 guidelines about indoor sports facilities.

▲ the COVID-19 guideline made by government (source : CDSCHQ)

The new COVID-19 guidelines, however, also aroused owner-operators' criticisms. It was aroused because the government conditionally allowed indoor sports facilities to open only for children and students. According to Center Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCHQ), all indoor sports facilities are allowed to operate under the same conditions as academies and taekwondo schools and have a form of instruction limited to children and students and must maintain not more than nine people at the same time.

Because children and students users or indoor sports facilities are only one percent of the whole users of indoor sports facilities, the new guidelines are not realistically helpful to owner-operators. It virtually seems to be a little different in terms of operating. Therefore, many owner-operators rebelled a lot. In an interview by Park Ye-Na, a reporter in Sedaily, Jeong Tae-Yong, a gym owner-operator who works in Mapo-gu, Seoul, said that the major users are adults, so there are no real changes. He added that they still feel deprived because of allowing only some industries except many industries such as indoor sports facilities.

▲ the gym owner operators are shaving their hair to protest against government (source: Kim sol reporter of naver news)

A lot of owner operator s of indoor sports facilities including a famous Korean gym YouTuber, Fitbely, decided to shut down their gym because of the financial burden. Some owner-operators already had some protests, and they are still preparing for more protests. Lots of people's livings are damaged because of the unfair guidelines, so the government will need to revise their COVID-19 guidelines as soon as possible.

January 17th, 2021

By Gyeowoon Jeong