Daejeon: Public services were expected to see massive disruptions Monday as the government raced to restore electronic services following a fire that damaged the state data management agency. As of midnight Sunday, 39 of the 647 electronic public services that were suspended following the fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in the central city of Daejeon were back online, according to the interior ministry.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the government has said it is prioritizing the restoration of services directly affecting people’s safety and economic activities, but the slow normalization process is expected to delay many administrative procedures when local government offices reopen Monday after the weekend.

For example, applications for the second round of government-issued consumption coupons will be possible, but a government site receiving civil complaints has been suspended, making it necessary to visit the local community service center to file any complaints. A nationwide cremation booking site has also been affected by the outage, requiring people to contact individual crematoriums online or via phone.

The government has said it will relocate 96 units of infrastructure damaged by the fire to the NIRS’ branch in the southeastern city of Daegu and expects it to take at least two weeks until all services are fully restored. President Lee Jae Myung apologized to the nation Sunday, saying the people are experiencing “great inconvenience and anxiety” due to the fire. He instructed the government to do everything to restore the services quickly ahead of the Chuseok holiday, when demand for postal, delivery and financial services is high.

The fire began after a lithium-ion battery exploded in a server room on the fifth floor of the NIRS and was completely extinguished at 6 p.m. Saturday, some 22 hours after the outbreak, authorities said.