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Korea places travel ban on self-quarantined people
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye
The Ministry of Justice has banned 14,500 citizens, who are self-quarantined at home after having contact with COVID-19 patients, from leaving the country in a bid to prevent any further spread of the virus and restore the trust of the international community, ministry officials said Wednesday.
The self-isolated people are banned from leaving the country for 14 days from the day they had contact with confirmed coronavirus patients under the assumption that the incubation period of the virus is two weeks.
The travel bans were imposed at the request of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
“The KCDC carries out epidemiological investigations into newly confirmed patients and decides on who should be self-quarantined. The KCDC can request the justice ministry to place travel bans on them in accordance with the Immigration Control Law,” a ministry official said.
The ministry did not need to place travel bans on confirmed patients as they have already been quarantined by the health authorities at hospitals and other facilities run by the government.
Notifications of travel bans have been already sent to the residences of 8,100 self-quarantining people as of Monday by registered mail that must be transferred in-person, which later provoked controversy that the ministry was overlooking the risk of infection facing postmen.
The Korean Postman Worker's Union affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions claimed in a statement, “Postmen have not been protected as they were not informed of the fact that they were coming face to face with self-quarantined people to deliver registered mail.”
The union called on the ministry to allow postmen to avoid face-to-face encounters with notification recipients.
Amid mounting criticism, the ministry belatedly consulted with Korea Post and changed the method of delivery, allowing postmen to put the notifications in mailboxes and use text messages to tell people of the completion of delivery.
“We changed the delivery method Tuesday considering concerns over postmen getting infected,” the ministry official said. “Once postmen report date and time of delivery to the ministry, the notification has the same force as registered mail.”
As thousands of confirmed cases have appeared in recent weeks here, the government has maintained the country's alert level for COVID-19 at its highest since Feb. 23, setting up a central disaster and safety countermeasures headquarters under the prime minister.
The government has also postponed national civil service examinations as a number of applicants seeking to become public servants gather at test sites and are exposed to the risk of infection.
According to Ministry of Personnel Management, a written test to select the lowest ranked grade nine civil servants, originally scheduled for March 28, has been put off until after May.
The government has also postponed the first round of tests to select diplomats and public servants for grade five until after April.