From the 21st, Fully Vaccinated Individuals Exempt from Self-Quarantine Upon Entry... Allowed to Use Public Transportation

Exemption from 7-Day Self-Quarantine Based on Vaccination Record Registration Status

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] From the 21st, overseas entrants who have completed COVID-19 vaccination and registered their vaccination records will be exempt from mandatory self-quarantine.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced on the 11th the "Overseas Entry Management System Reform Plan" with this content. The main point is to exempt the 7-day quarantine, which was applied to all overseas entrants after the emergence of the Omicron variant, only for those who have completed vaccination. From the 21st, the exemption will apply only to those who have completed vaccination domestically or overseas and have registered their vaccination records, and from April 1st, it will be expanded to those who completed vaccination overseas but have not registered their vaccination records.

Under this measure, those exempt from quarantine are people who meet the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency approval vaccine vaccination completion criteria: those who are within 180 days after 14 days have passed since the second dose (one dose for Janssen) and those who have received the third dose. If vaccination was completed overseas, it will be applied as a domestically registered vaccinated person if the vaccination record is already registered domestically and confirmed through the Quarantine Information Pre-Input System (Q-CODE).

Verification of vaccination status upon entry will be conducted using the "Pre-Input System," which will be expanded to all routes arriving at Incheon Airport from the 21st. For those vaccinated domestically or who have registered their overseas vaccination records domestically, the information will be automatically linked through the COOV system connected to the Pre-Input System.

For those who have completed vaccination but whose vaccination records are not confirmed domestically registered, quarantine exemption will be possible from April 1st by directly entering vaccination records and attaching certificates through the Pre-Input System. However, unvaccinated individuals will remain subject to quarantine as before.

Also, from April 1st, all entrants will be allowed to use public transportation. The previously operated quarantine transportation network (private cars, quarantine taxis, KTX exclusive cars) will be discontinued. Since the 10th, for all entrants, among the three diagnostic tests currently conducted (before entry, on day 1 after entry, and on days 6-7 after entry), the test on days 6-7 after entry has been simplified to allow rapid antigen testing.

However, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Myanmar have been designated as countries excluded from quarantine exemption, so even vaccinated individuals must quarantine. This decision was made considering the risk level of overseas inflow countries and the domestic quarantine burden.

The quarantine authorities stated, "Measures such as expanding flight routes and frequencies and visa issuance will be gradually eased considering the quarantine situation due to the increase in entrants."

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