Passenger List Must Be Completed When Operating 'Short-Term Charter Buses'

Participants of the rally condemning the government and ruling party, hosted by Sarangjeil Church and the National Movement Headquarters for Setting the Republic of Korea Right, are filling Sejong-daero in front of Donghwa Duty Free Shop in Jongno-gu, Seoul on Liberation Day. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The government has established a policy requiring the creation of passenger lists whenever short-term chartered buses are operated for one-time events, tourism, or gatherings. This measure comes in response to difficulties in quarantine and epidemiological investigations due to the failure to properly identify passenger lists of chartered buses used by confirmed COVID-19 patients, mainly participants of the Liberation Day rally held recently in Gwanghwamun, Seoul.

On the 25th, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters reported and discussed measures to strengthen quarantine on chartered buses using the electronic entry log (KI-Pass) from the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Central Accident Response Headquarters, deciding on this policy accordingly.

Accordingly, local governments will issue administrative orders to chartered bus operators to manage passenger lists using the electronic entry log when operating short-term chartered buses, and will also require the preparation and management of manual logs in case the use of electronic entry logs is difficult. This is based on Article 49 of the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. However, chartered buses that operate regularly, such as commuter, school, or academy buses, are excluded from this requirement.

Some local governments, including Jeonbuk, Gyeonggi-do, Daejeon, Chungnam, Gyeongnam, and Busan, have already issued administrative orders mandating the creation of passenger lists for short-term chartered buses. For local governments that have not yet issued such orders, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters plans to recommend issuing administrative orders.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also plans to request local governments to thoroughly manage and supervise by strengthening crackdowns and strictly punishing illegal activities that pose significant risks of infectious disease spread, such as singing and dancing inside chartered buses.

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