Unvaccinated Visitors Trigger 'Beep' Warning at Restaurants... Criticism Arises: "Is This Really Necessary?"

On the 14th, the second day of the full implementation of the quarantine pass, some QR check-ins on platforms like Naver experienced access disruptions during lunchtime.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] As the government announced the introduction of a warning sound function to verify the validity period of the COVID-19 quarantine pass, criticism has arisen that the quarantine pass constitutes human rights violations and discrimination against the unvaccinated.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) on the 24th, a validity period of 180 days will be applied to the quarantine pass starting from 0:00 on January 3rd next year. Accordingly, if the second dose was received before July 6th and the third dose was not administered, the quarantine pass will uniformly expire from 0:00 on January 3rd next year.

Additionally, the government decided to equip a separate voice guidance function to efficiently verify whether the quarantine pass validity period has expired.

The CDCH stated in a press release the day before, "The voice guidance function is expected to alleviate the burden on facility managers and operators of small-scale facilities or facilities crowded during peak hours in managing entry logs and verifying quarantine passes."

The plan is to produce a separate sound effect when an invalid certificate is attempted to be authenticated. However, concerns have been raised that if a warning sound revealing unvaccinated status to an unspecified majority occurs, the controversy over discrimination against COVID-19 vaccine unvaccinated individuals could intensify.

Professor Chun Eun-mi of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital said, "If a beep sound occurs as soon as you enter, it makes people self-conscious and causes noise," adding, "There may be people who received the first dose but not the second due to adverse reactions, so I am not sure if this is absolutely necessary."

On the other hand, Professor Jung Jae-hoon of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Gachon University said, "Currently, it is not a situation where everyone can be satisfied," and "We need to try everything actively that can be done."

In response to the controversy, the CDCH announced on the 23rd regarding the quarantine pass warning sound, "Originally planned as a beep-beep sound, it is being improved to a less stimulating notification sound."

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