The government unveiled, Friday, a detailed roadmap on lifting the indoor mask mandate, cautiously predicting that it may be scrapped by the end of January at the earliest. Yet medical experts are still debating whether the country is ready to ditch the indoor mask rule, one of the last remaining COVID-19 restrictions in Korea. While some doctors viewed that masks should now be more of a personal choice, others expressed concerns that the premature lifting of the mandate may put vulnerable groups at risk.