S.Korea to lift outdoor mask mandate starting next week

A woman wearing a mask, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, adjusts her makeup at a Han river park in Seoul, South Korea, April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea will lift an outdoor face mask mandate starting next week, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum announced on Friday, in the country's latest step to ease COVID-19 restrictions as it learns to live with the Omicron variant.

The move would come two weeks after South Korea scrapped most of its pandemic-related precautions, including a midnight curfew on restaurants and other businesses, on April 18.