Government: "Quarantine Pass Works Normally Except on Naver... One More Day Extension for Administrative Sanctions"

On the 13th, when the mandatory implementation of the quarantine pass began, a notice for quarantine pass verification was posted at the entrance of Yonsei University Central Library in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. From this day forward, if quarantine passes are not verified at restaurants, cafes, and other establishments, fines will be imposed on both users and operators. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] On the second day of the implementation of the quarantine pass on the 14th, some access disruptions continued, but the government announced that it has taken emergency measures to ensure smooth usage. However, the policy remains not to impose administrative sanctions on this day as well, following the previous day.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) stated, "We conducted emergency server expansion and service optimization work overnight," and that electronic vaccination certificates would be issued more smoothly. Regarding the cause of the disruption, they explained, "Overload occurred due to a surge in access volume, and there were shortcomings in responding to overload issues such as real-time mass authentication processing failures. Although the server was expanded based on the previous usage of the quarantine pass, the surge in access volume following the end of the guidance period caused difficulties in issuing certificates."

The KDCA added, "From today, citizens using the quarantine pass are advised to obtain their initial vaccination certificate in advance at convenient times through platforms like Naver and Kakao, which will enable smooth use even during lunch and dinner hours."

Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Division at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, also explained during the COVID-19 response briefing that "One of the issues yesterday was that many people tried to obtain their initial certificate during lunch and dinner hours, overwhelming the server. If the initial authentication is done in advance at a convenient time today, usage will be much smoother."

However, around lunchtime today, electronic certificate issuance disruptions continued, especially among Naver app users.

The KDCA stated that other private platforms besides the Naver app are operating normally. The KDCA said, "COOV is functioning normally, and no special disruptions have occurred on private platform companies other than the Naver app," and announced that administrative sanctions such as fines will not be applied today as well.

Son explained, "Due to ongoing system overload issues today, penalties will be waived for cases where the quarantine pass was not verified. Measures were also taken yesterday to not apply penalties even if violations were reported or detected when the system did not operate smoothly on site."

In this regard, the government expanded the application of the quarantine pass (vaccination certificate or negative test confirmation) to multi-use facilities such as restaurants and cafes starting the previous day, and planned to impose fines after a one-week guidance period. However, due to overload caused by user congestion during lunch and dinner hours, the enforcement was postponed by one day.

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