SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — 137 out of 194 imported cases reported on Thursday (5 Jan) in South Korea are from China for a short-term visit or less than 90 days.
The travellers tested positive for COVID-19 when PCR tests became mandatory for all arrivals from the country, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
South Korea took steps last Friday to limit travellers from mainland China, imposing visa restrictions, testing requirements and limiting flights.
Under the new measure, for the next two months, travellers from China must provide a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours before boarding a plane to South Korea, or a negative antigen test within 24 hours before departure. They will also be required to undergo a PCR test within the first day of their arrival.
However, passengers entering Korea for business trips, humanitarian purposes, children under the age of six and those diagnosed with the virus within 10 to 40 days are not subject to the mandate.
According to Yonhap, all short-term visitors from China were handed out red name tags to identify them apart from travellers from other countries. They were then escorted by soldiers in blue protective clothing to take the PCR test, which is located in Terminal 1.
Those who underwent the PCR test were then asked to stay in a waiting room on the first floor of the nearby Transportation Center, which is capable of holding up to 300 people until their test results came out.
The arrivals who are infected will have to quarantine for seven days at a temporary facility near the airport, which can accommodate about 100 people at the same time.
Chinese nationals placed in quarantine in South Korea are charged about US$8 for their first PCR test. They also have to pay US$150 per day spent in a quarantine facility, as well as any further medical expenses, as most of them do not have South Korean health insurance coverage.
It was reported on Tuesday that a Chinese national went missing while waiting at a quarantine facility. The person tested positive after arriving at Incheon International Airport near Seoul at around 10:04 pm and was transferred to a hotel to await admission to quarantine.
According to The Korea Herald, a hotel surveillance camera showed the 41-year-old man running from a bus carrying COVID-positive travellers just six minutes after arriving at the hotel parking lot.
He then ran to a supermarket about 300 meters from the hotel and took a taxi to Seoul, according to police investigations.
42 police personnel were deployed to track the fugitive’s whereabouts.
He was then caught at a hotel in Seoul Thursday afternoon, where he was taken to a facility to spend the stipulated seven days in quarantine.
Authorities will also further investigate the reason why he fled and the route he took to avoid a similar incident from happening again.
Kim Joo-young, a health official, told the media that the individual could be subject to up to one year in prison, or 10 million won (US$7,840) in fines if convicted of violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, as well as being deported and banned from entering the country for a certain period of time.
In a media briefing, he said it was a “disgrace” that authorities could not prevent such an incident, adding, “Going forward, we will dispatch more personnel including police to prevent this from recurring.”
