Group Tourists from Wuhan, China Visit Downtown Seoul Duty-Free Shops During Lunar New Year Holiday

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Shinwon Yoon] Amid nationwide fear of the novel coronavirus infection (Wuhan pneumonia), it has been reported that a group of tourists from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, visited a downtown duty-free shop in Seoul during the Lunar New Year holiday on the 25th.

According to the duty-free industry on the 28th, about 10 tourists who traveled from Wuhan to Korea visited a downtown duty-free shop in Seoul on the 25th. These tourists entered the country on the 22nd, just before Wuhan was locked down.

The duty-free shop did not inform its employees that tourists from Wuhan were scheduled to visit, and the employees confirmed that they were from Wuhan while checking the customers' airline tickets. At that time, there were already two confirmed cases of Wuhan pneumonia in Korea.

However, the duty-free shop employees pointed out that since mask-wearing was not yet mandatory for employees at that time, they could not take even minimal preventive measures.

Generally, since Chinese tourists visit several downtown duty-free shops at once, it is possible that they visited other downtown duty-free shops besides Duty-Free Shop A, but this has not been confirmed.

The duty-free shop explained, "These customers passed all quarantine checks at Incheon Airport," and added, "There are too many small group tourists, so we do not provide separate notices to employees."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.