Jinyoung: "It is common sense that banning Chinese entry reduces risk"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Jin Young, Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, stated that regarding the ban on entry of Chinese nationals to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it is common sense that the risk decreases if Chinese entry is banned, but the conclusion was made after considering various other factors.

Minister Jin responded to Rep. Joo Ho-young of the Future United Party's question during the National Assembly's government questioning session on why the entry of Chinese nationals is not banned, saying, "I am aware that there are many opinions on that matter (restriction on Chinese entry), and even without being an expert, it is common sense that if Chinese entry is completely banned, the risk can be reduced," but added, "However, various other factors must be reviewed, and this conclusion was reached through that process."

Regarding President Moon Jae-in's remark that "COVID-19 will end soon," he said, "We have been announcing confirmed cases daily. There was a time when no confirmed cases appeared for 2 to 3 days, so there was hope that it might end like this," adding, "That was a limitation, and the government is doing its best to block and quarantine."

Regarding the possibility that the confirmed case of a Chinese international student who arrived in Gangneung might have been influenced by the 570,000 Chinese nationals who entered Korea from China between January 1 and 27, he replied, "It is not possible to completely rule out such a possibility."

In response to criticism that only Korea is not banning entry, he said, "It is not only Korea that is not banning entry," and added, "I do not know the exact statistics, but there are probably more countries that are not banning entry than those that are."

He also appealed that securing hospital beds takes time. He said, "Securing facilities as living treatment centers is not a hospital," and "Because the number of patients has surged so much, even if we try to secure hospitals, we have to transfer existing patients elsewhere." Regarding the Daegu mayor's request to activate the president's emergency command authority to secure 3,000 hospital beds, he said, "Securing hospital beds does not work theoretically from today like that."

Regarding the shortage of masks, he said, "We have supplied more masks especially to Daegu," and "I believe that the production volume of masks is not absolutely small compared to the population, and since it is not easy to immediately increase facilities, we are trying to solve distribution problems." Regarding the declaration of Daegu as a special disaster area, he said, "Declaring a disaster area means that local financial support is provided from the national treasury, but now all finances are going to Daegu," and "Even if declared, there is no financial benefit, and there has been no precedent of declaring a special disaster area due to an infectious disease."

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