- Title: South Korea shows how to conduct an election in the time of coronavirus
- Date: 10th April 2020
- Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (APRIL 10, 2020) (REUTERS) MONITOR SCREEN AT POLLING STATION SHOWING THERMAL TEMPERATURES SOUTH KOREAN VOTERS IN FACE MASKS QUEUING IN LINE TO VOTE SCREEN AREA, MAN RUBBING HANDS WITH HAND SANITISER AND RECEIVING PLASTIC GLOVES VOTERS AND POLLING STATION STAFF MOVING AROUND POLLING STATION VOTERS SANITISING HANDS VOTER PUTTING ON PLASTIC GLOVES VOTER DROPPING OF BALLOTS INSIDE INTO BALLOT BOX VOTERS IN FACE MASKS WALKING OUT OF POLLING BOOTHS VOTERS DROPPING OFF ENVELOPES WITH BALLOTS INSIDE ENVELOPE DROPPING INTO BALLOT BOX (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 54-YEAR-OLD SEOUL RESIDENT, AHN IN-CHEOL, SAYING: "I'm wearing two masks because of COVID-19. I came here like this to vote in advance. Everybody is struggling to get over coronavirus, so I hope individuals, more than the government, take responsibility and put effort into individual hygiene." POLLING STATION VOTERS IN FACE MASKS QUEUING AND MOVING FORWARD WHILE KEEPING SAFE DISTANCE FROM EACH OTHER VOTERS MOVING FORWARD WHILE KEEPING SAFE DISTANCE FROM EACH OTHER POLLING STATION STAFF SEATED AND VOTERS REGISTERING VOTER WEARING PLASTIC GLOVE AND SIGNING NAME FOR VOTER REGISTRATION (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 22-YEAR-OLD VOTER FROM DAEJEON, KIM JU-YEON, SAYING: "It was a little uncomfortable since I had to put on plastic (gloves), but because voting is a must, the (voting) experience was reassuring." VOTERS INSIDE POLLING BOOTHS VOTER SHUFFLING BALLOT PAPERS INSIDE POLLING BOOTH VOTERS DROPPING OFF BALLOTS AND REMOVING PLASTIC GLOVES TO THROW INTO TRASH BIN PLASTIC GLOVES INSIDE TRASH BIN
- Embargoed: 24th April 2020 05:11
- Keywords: COVID-19 South Korea coronavirus face mask gloves parliamentary election polling station voting
- Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
- City: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001C8WPFT3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:With plastic gloves and hand sanitiser for everyone, South Korea showed how the country is conducting parliamentary election in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
The early voters casting their ballots on Friday (April 10), ahead of parliamentary election next week, were also required to wear a mask, while all the polling stations had been disinfected a day earlier. Officials conducted temperature checks at the entrance and anyone with a temperature higher than 37.5 °C (99.5°F) was directed to special booths.
The election itself is five days away, on April 15, but officials are hoping that people will take advantage of early voting options to reduce the number of voters crowding polling locations on that day. They set up more than 3,500 stations for early voters for two days starting from Friday.
Kim Ju-yeon, a 22-year-old resident of Daejeon, voted at a polling station at Seoul Station and said that it was uncomfortable to wear plastic gloves but the experience was reassuring.
South Korea, which once had the largest number of cases of COVID-19 outside of China, used widespread testing and social distancing measures to bring the infections down. It only reported 27 new cases on Thursday (April 9).
(Production: Dogyun Kim, Daewoung Kim, Chaeyoun Won, Minwoo Park, Travis Teo) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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