Gov't to bolster supervision of foreign arrivals
A foreign arrival listens to COVID-19 guidelines from health officials at Incheon International Airport, Wednesday. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
The government has decided to strengthen its supervision of foreign nationals required to participate in a mandatory two-week quarantine period after arriving in Korea to stem the possible community transmission of COVID-19, officials said Wednesday.
They noted police patrols will increase, and more surveillance cameras will be installed in a bid to prevent those in mandatory quarantine from leaving quarantine facilities.
The measures came after three Vietnamese nationals escaped, Monday, from a hotel in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, which was designated by the government as one of the quarantine facilities to house foreign arrivals.
The three used a descending life line from the sixth floor of the hotel, police said, noting that they are still searching for the whereabouts of the three. They still had one week left in their mandatory quarantine period.
Their escape raised concerns as the number of COVID-19 infections among people arriving from abroad has recently become much higher than that of locally transmitted infections.
Under the compulsory quarantine measures that began in April, all arrivals from overseas ― both Koreans and foreign nationals ― are obliged to self-isolate at their residences or at government-designated facilities for 14 days as the coronavirus has an incubation period of about 14 days.
“Currently, surveillance cameras are installed mostly inside the quarantine facilities. We will install more cameras on the outside too,” said Koh Deuk-young, a high-level official at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “We also plan to increase the police patrols around the facilities.”
The government said it will continue its policy of zero tolerance on those breaking self-isolation rules, noting that violators are subject to deportation.
According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the country added 48 new cases Tuesday, taking the nation's total caseload to 14,251.
The number of new daily cases had hovered around 20 for Sunday and Monday, but bounced back to above 40 Tuesday as both imported cases and local transmissions climbed up.
Among the 48 new cases, 34 were imported, more than double the 14 local infections. Of the 34 imported infections, 21 were detected at airports or seaports, while 13 patients tested positive during their 14-day self-quarantine period.
By country, 13 cases came from Russia, followed by eight from the United States and seven from Uzbekistan. Six others came from Kazakhstan, France, India, Iraq and the Philippines.
The KCDC noted 12 more sailors on a Russian fishing vessel docked in Busan tested positive for the virus. The ship, which entered a Busan port on July 8, has already reported 32 cases of COVID-19 among crew members.