COVID-19 Imported Cases 31.4 ... "Legal Amendment to Enforce Treatment Fee Billing Underway"

Daily Average Domestic Cases 31.8 → 19.9
Daily Average Imported Cases 19.6 → 31.4
Plan to Expand Quarantine Strengthening Target Countries

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] As the daily new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in South Korea have dropped from the 30s to the 10s over the past two weeks, the government is pushing for a legal amendment to allow charging treatment fees to foreign COVID-19 patients who were infected overseas.

On the 26th, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters held a regular briefing at the government Seoul office video conference room to discuss recent measures to strengthen management related to confirmed cases among seafarers and improvements to hospitalization treatment fees for foreign entrants.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Domestic daily average confirmed cases down from 31.8 to 19.9

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, the daily average number of confirmed cases over the recent two weeks from the 12th to the 25th was 19.9, a decrease of 11.9 from 31.8 during the previous two weeks (June 28 to July 11).

The proportion of patients whose infection routes were not identified improved from 8.5% to 6.3% during the same period, and the rate of patient management within the quarantine network is approaching 80%. The number of cluster infection occurrences also decreased from 12 to 8.

Regionally, sporadic cluster infections continued in the metropolitan area at elderly facilities, churches, and military units, maintaining a daily average of 15.4 cases, similar to 15 cases in the previous two weeks. In contrast, cases significantly decreased in Daejeon-Chungnam and Gwangju-Jeonnam areas.

Daily average overseas imported confirmed cases up from 19.6 to 31.4

On the other hand, overseas imported confirmed cases increased sharply. The daily average over the recent two weeks was 31.4, up 11.8 from the previous two weeks. This is attributed to many confirmed cases among Korean construction workers returning from Iraq and crew members on a Russian-flagged vessel that docked at Busan Port.

As multiple confirmed cases continued to emerge from vessels entering South Korea, including Russian ships, the government plans to expand the list of countries subject to strengthened quarantine measures and require crew members of ships departing from these countries to submit a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test negative certificate issued within 48 hours before departure. Currently, the countries under strengthened quarantine measures are Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, and Uzbekistan.

Additionally, the government will minimize permission for crew members to disembark by allowing landing only after confirming a negative test result.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Charging treatment fees to overseas imported foreign confirmed cases

With the global resurgence of COVID-19 causing a sharp increase in confirmed cases among foreign entrants, the government is also pushing for a legal amendment to charge treatment fees to foreign confirmed cases imported from overseas. Until now, to prevent domestic spread of COVID-19, the government has supported testing and treatment fees for foreign confirmed cases entering from abroad under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act.

However, as the number of foreign confirmed cases imported from overseas surged, increasing the burden on domestic quarantine and medical systems, improvement measures were devised. The number of foreign confirmed cases among overseas imported cases rose more than sixfold from 11 during July 1?7 last month to 67 during July 22?28, and further increased to 132 during August 13?19.

The government plans to amend relevant laws to require foreign nationals confirmed infected during entry quarantine or the two-week isolation period after entering the country to bear hospitalization treatment costs. Earlier, on the 24th, Kang Byung-won, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, proposed an amendment to the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act to allow charging treatment fees to foreign confirmed cases. The government intends to prioritize applying self-payment of treatment fees to foreigners who intentionally burden domestic quarantine and medical systems, such as those violating quarantine measures.

A Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters official said, "We plan to expand the scope of application while monitoring the trend of increasing overseas imported foreign patients and also consider supporting treatment fees for nationals abroad. Once the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act is amended, we will prepare specific measures such as priority application targets through revisions of operational guidelines."

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