SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea will allow baseball fans to return to the stands beginning Sunday, as health authorities outlined a phased process to bring back spectators in professional sports amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Senior Health Ministry official Yoon Tae-ho also said at a virus briefing Friday that fans will be allowed at professional soccer games starting Aug. 1. Professional golf tournaments will continue without galleries until at least late August, he said.
Both baseball and soccer teams will initially be allowed to sell only 10% of the seats for each game, as officials plan to control the level of attendance based on the progress of anti-virus efforts.
Spectators will continue to be banned in the city of Gwangju and nearby South Jeolla province towns, which have elevated their social distancing measures following a rise in transmissions in recent weeks.
Fans will be screened for fevers and required to sit apart in the seats. They will be required to wear masks, banned from eating food and drinking beer, and discouraged from excessive shouting, singing and cheering. Stadium officials will register fans with smartphone QR codes so they can be easily located when needed.
South Korea's baseball and soccer leagues returned to action in May without fans in the stands. Seats have been covered with cheering banners, dolls or pictures of fans as teams tried to mimic a festive atmosphere.
South Korea's daily increase of coronavirus cases again dropped below 50 on Friday, though an uptick has continued in the Seoul area.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that of the 41 additional cases in the past 24 hours, 28 were locally infected and 13 came from overseas. They brought the national tally to 13,979, including 298 deaths.
South Korea has been reporting roughly 20 to 60 cases every day since it eased rigid social distancing rules in early May.