S. Korea alarmed by patients from overseas

Passengers arriving at Incheon International Airport on a flight from London wait in long lines to board a bus that will take them to a COVID-19 testing center, Monday, after the government began conducting coronavirus tests on all arrivals from Europe the previous day. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

The central government and municipal administrations are struggling to prevent coronavirus infections coming from outside Korea, as the number of foreign-origin cases has been rising sharply in recent weeks, officials said Monday.

Korea has reported 8,961 COVID-19 patients so far since the first case was confirmed Jan 20, and of those, 144 were infected abroad, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Notably, the number of infections of foreign origin has increased more than 18 times from the first week to the third week of this month when the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak, which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a global pandemic, March 11.

In the first week of March, the health authorities reported four patients who were infected abroad, with the figure increasing to 18 in the second week and 74 in the third week.

In the early stages of the virus outbreak here, most infections of foreign origin were brought in from China, but in the third week, 54 out of 74 patients were infected in Europe and 12 were from the Americas.

The KCDC confirmed 64 additional cases, Sunday, and among those, 14 were of foreign origin.

In a bid to prevent an influx of COVID-19 cases from other countries, the government implemented special quarantine procedures for people coming from all nations, March 19.

The government also began conducting coronavirus tests on all arrivals from Europe, Sunday, and requiring those who will stay for a long time in Korea to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine even if they test negative.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said during a briefing, “It is necessary to extend coronavirus tests to people coming from all countries, not only Europe.”

He noted the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) will ask the government for a list of entrants from the United States and the Philippines and require them to undergo self-quarantine.

“The SMG needs to keep a close watch on all entrants as most of them live in Seoul and its surrounding areas,” Park said.

Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official in charge of containment measures, is also hinting that the government will extend the coronavirus tests to all entrants soon.

“We are monitoring the situation in the United States and other countries,” he said during a briefing. “The government is mulling ways of enhancing quarantine measures on arrivals not only from Europe but also from other nations, and will announce those soon.”