The government has decided to temporarily suspend the COVID-19 pass system for all multi-use facilities from Tuesday.

Interior and safety minister Jeon Hae-cheol said on Monday that starting Tuesday, the government will suspend the pass system which has been implemented for eleven types of multi-use facilities, including restaurants and cafes.

In his opening remarks for a government meeting, the minister said the decision was made in light of the revised quarantine system and concerns over the equitability of the system’s enforcement for different age groups and regions.

Minister Jeon said that the pass system was introduced to help vaccinated people return to normalcy and protect unvaccinated people when the more deadly delta variant was rapidly spreading in the country.

Amid the soaring infections of the less deadly omicron variant, public health centers have put enormous personnel and resources into issuing certificates for negative COVID-19 test results, encumbering the system.

Minister Jeon said that the suspension of the pass system will now allow the public health centers to better focus on the management of COVID-19 patients among high-risk groups.

He added that about three thousand public officials from the central government will be dispatched to 258 public health centers across the nation this week to provide support in the fight against the omicron variant. The government will also dispatch one-thousand military personnel until the end of this week.