[Q&A] "Responding to Overseas Entry with Liberal Policies Rather Than Restrictions" (Comprehensive)

Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Director of the Central Disease Control Headquarters [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] On the 22nd, more than 15% of the newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 were identified as imported cases. Among these, arrivals from Europe accounted for more than half.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters for COVID-19 announced at the regular briefing in the afternoon that "Among the 98 new confirmed cases yesterday (21st), 15 cases (persons) were related to overseas inflow, accounting for 15.3% of the total." Of these, 8 cases were arrivals from Europe, 3 from the United States, and 1 each from Canada, the Philippines, and Iran, with 1 case having traveled through Colombia and the United States.

Deputy Director Kwon Jun-wook of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters urged, "Please postpone or cancel non-urgent overseas travel, and if you have suspicious symptoms upon entry, voluntarily report to quarantine officers or install the self-quarantine application and comply with special entry procedures." He also reaffirmed the intention to respond with democratic and liberal policies rather than completely blocking overseas entries. As of midnight on the day, the total cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases in Korea stood at 8,897, with 123 cases identified as imported.

◇ Below is the Q&A with Deputy Director Kwon Jun-wook regarding imported confirmed cases

- There are imported cases not only from Europe but also from other regions. There are 5 cases from the Americas. Is there consideration of additional measures similar to those for Europe for countries like the United States?

▲ Regarding measures taken so far for imported cases, entry was blocked from Hubei Province, where the most patients were in China, and special entry management was applied to other regions. Currently, Europe is not at the level of Hubei Province, but the number of patients there is clearly higher than other regions in China at that time, increasing the likelihood of importation into Korea. Therefore, stronger measures than special entry management are being taken for Europe, such as thorough investigation of entrants, and even if asymptomatic or testing negative, self-quarantine or active monitoring for short-term foreign residents is enforced. In fact, more than three-quarters of overseas entrants are Korean nationals. In some cases, although the nationality is that of the country, the names appear Korean, suggesting they are overseas Koreans or ethnic Koreans. Rather than bluntly blocking entry, we will review the situation abroad, daily entry volumes, and domestic capacity comprehensively to implement rational and reasonable policies based on democracy and liberalism as recommended by WHO.

- Even if the confirmed cases in the Americas are Korean nationals, they continue to appear. It seems necessary to strengthen investigations as with Europe.

▲ Currently, Europe is undergoing thorough testing, and special entry management procedures are applied mainly to countries with multiple cases. We will further assess the situation in other countries, various circumstances we can respond to, and the scale of entries to take appropriate measures.

- There are foreign media reports that statistics published by some countries in Southeast Asia cannot be trusted. Is it appropriate to manage entry procedures based on national statistics?

▲ Regarding statistics, since they are based on the official data from the World Health Organization (WHO), it is practically most reasonable to take measures based on them. We monitor each Southeast Asian country daily, and even if the numbers are low, we observe trends of increase. Since we continue testing and quarantining Korean nationals or foreigners entering or returning to Korea, we make judgments considering all these factors comprehensively.

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