701 Repatriated Wuhan Residents, Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "No Additional Repatriation Requests"... 'Fever' Quarantined Residents Also Arrive (Comprehensive Report 2)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Estimates 200-300 Remain in Wuhan and Nearby Areas... "Monitoring and Considering Dispatch of Temporary Flights"
First Batch of 368 and Second Batch of 333 Arrived... Immigration Procedures Completed Faster Than First Batch
Fewer Passengers on Second Charter Flight Than Initially Planned... "16 Gave Up Returning Due to Various Reasons"
7 Symptomatic Returnees from Wuhan in Second Batch Transferred to Hospital

On the 31st, a charter flight dispatched to transport Korean residents living in Wuhan, China, arrived at Gimpo International Airport in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporters Lim Cheol-young, Yoo Je-hoon] A total of 333 Korean residents who stayed near Wuhan (武漢), Hubei (湖北) Province, China, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus infection (Wuhan pneumonia), arrived at Gimpo International Airport on the second chartered flight. Among them, seven people showing suspected symptoms such as fever were transferred to the National Medical Center. Additionally, one Korean resident from Wuhan, Hubei Province, who was quarantined at home after failing to pass Chinese quarantine due to fever during boarding of the first chartered flight, also entered the country on the second chartered flight.

On the 1st, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters held a briefing at the Government Complex Sejong and announced this. The 333 Wuhan residents departed from Wuhan Tianhe Airport at 6:18 a.m. on Korean Air flight KE9884 and arrived at Gimpo International Airport around 8:12 a.m. The second chartered flight, like the first one the previous day, arrived about 1 hour and 40 minutes later than expected due to strengthened quarantine measures by the Chinese side.

Among the 348 Wuhan residents who applied to board the second chartered flight, 16 did not board for various reasons, and 332 gathered at Wuhan Tianhe Airport. One person who showed fever symptoms and was sent home during the Chinese quarantine process was finally confirmed to be asymptomatic and boarded additionally. However, the government had previously transported 368 people on the first chartered flight out of 720 applicants, and planned to transport 350 people on the second chartered flight, but the actual number transported was 333, falling short of the plan.

Kang Hyung-sik, Director of Overseas Safety Management Planning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained, "One person who initially could not board due to fever was quarantined at home, but later confirmed to be in good health. The Wuhan Consulate General closely coordinated with the Chinese side to lift the quarantine and allowed the person to come to the airport. As for the others who did not board the chartered flight, most were confirmed to have given up returning home for various reasons."

With the deployment of two chartered flights, a total of 701 Wuhan residents have returned home. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that about 200 to 300 people remain locally and plans to monitor the situation on-site while considering whether to deploy additional temporary flights. Director Kang said, "Although the government urgently issued additional boarding notices, no residents have expressed willingness to return so far. We will continue to monitor the local situation and consider dispatching additional temporary flights."

Before the chartered flight arrived, quarantine personnel wearing white protective suits, as well as fire trucks, ambulances, and police buses, were deployed in large numbers at the apron. A temporary quarantine station made of tents was also set up nearby. It was similar to the day the first chartered flight arrived, but additional tents were installed. The residents began disembarking in earnest around 8:40 a.m. Those who disembarked completed temperature checks and questionnaire forms at the temporary quarantine station set up on the apron, then moved to the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center (SGBAC) for additional quarantine and immigration procedures.

The quarantine, immigration, and transportation procedures for the Wuhan residents on the second chartered flight were noticeably faster than the previous day. Unlike the first chartered flight passengers who waited about 40 minutes before disembarking and underwent about three hours of quarantine and processing before moving to temporary living facilities, the second chartered flight passengers completed all procedures and left the airport by 10:12 a.m., just two hours after disembarking.

The 326 asymptomatic residents who returned on the second flight completed all quarantine procedures and were divided onto 33 large and medium-sized buses to be transported to the Police Human Resources Development Institute in Asan, Chungnam. They will be quarantined and housed in temporary living facilities for two weeks.

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