A customer presents her vaccination certificate at a restaurant in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Kim Ki-nam

Starting this day, December 13, the “vaccine pass” will be implemented and citizens will have to prove that they received the COVID-19 vaccine to enter restaurants and cafes. If a customer enters a business without presenting his/her vaccine pass, they will be fined 100,000 won, and if a business owner fails to check the vaccine pass, she will be subject to a fine of 1.5 million won and a 10-day suspension of business.

The government had designated a week from December 6 as an introductory period for facilities where the vaccine pass would be mandatory, such as restaurants, cafes, hakwon (private academies), movie theaters, performance halls, study rooms, study cafes, Internet cafes, museums and libraries. The introductory period ends on December 13 and now if customers and business owners fail to present or check the vaccine pass, they will both be fined.

Citizens must present a certificate (vaccination certificate or negative test result certificate) along with their ID in facilities where the vaccine pass is required. People who were not vaccinated due to medical reasons, such as former COVID-19 patients who are now cured and people who can’t be vaccinated or have postponed the vaccination due to allergic reactions following vaccination will be exempt from the vaccine pass. Teenagers ages 18 and younger will not be subject to the vaccine pass until February 1, 2022.

Handwritten visitors’ logs will be banned in facilities where the vaccine pass is mandatory. Basically, businesses will have to manage customer logs using smartphone QR codes or a call check-in service, but exceptions for handwritten logs will be allowed only for older adults and teenagers who don’t have cell phones. The government plans to implement an introductory period until December 19 for businesses that had so far only used handwritten logs and concentrate inspections in these areas beginning December 20.

Once citizens have been vaccinated, they can get their COVID-19 vaccination certificate from the hospital where they received the vaccine, public health centers, the Government 24 website (https://www.gov.kr) and the vaccination support website (https://nip.kdca.go.kr). The vaccine pass will be valid for six months beginning two weeks after the second vaccine dose is administered. Citizens can also verify that they are fully vaccinated using the COOV application. Anyone forging or altering a certificate or using a forged or altered certificate can be punished with up to ten years in prison according to the Criminal Act.