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| Incheon International Airport is almost empty, Wednesday. The government said it will suspend flights arriving from the United Kingdom until the end of this year over concerns about a new strain of the coronavirus. Yonhap |
Gov't bans travel from Britain until Dec. 31
By Bahk Eun-ji
To prevent the possible influx of a new strain of the COVID-19 causing coronavirus discovered in the United Kingdom, the government announced Wednesday it was temporarily banning all flights from the U.K. until the end of the year.
The move follows reports that the variant, first detected in southeast England in September, has quickly become dominant in London and other parts of the country, as it spreads significantly faster than other strains.
"We came up with the measure, following meetings of relevant government bodies, to prevent the spread of the mutated virus found in Britain," Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health official, said in a regular briefing, Wednesday.
"Korea's diplomatic missions there have stopped issuing quarantine exemption documents so all people from the U.K. will be placed under a 14-day quarantine."
People from the U.K. arriving here after the ban is lifted will have to undergo the quarantine period and then get a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, he added. The criteria for body temperature checks has also been lowered to a maximum of 37.3 degrees Celsius from the previous 37.5 degrees for people departing from U.K. airports, so people having fever higher than 37.3 degrees will be banned from boarding flights to Korea.
"We will also conduct gene amplification tests if we detect any people with coronavirus from the U.K. to check whether it is related to the new mutated strain" Yoon said.
Over the past two months, 15 people arriving from the U.K. have tested positive for COVID-19 in Korea, but the authorities said they have not detected the mutated virus here yet.
Despite the direct flight suspension, it may be hard for the authorities to thoroughly check whether a traveler has stayed in the U.K. if the person has a stopover in a third country.
Yoon said potential cases would be adequately screened as the European Union has taken thorough border measures for arrivals from Britain. Currently, about 50 countries, including Germany, Italy, India and Hong Kong, have temporarily banned flights.
The government said it will provide thorough guidance for inbound travelers from Britain from the airport quarantine check stage.
Meanwhile, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 1,092 new COVID-19 infections for Tuesday, including 1,060 local cases, raising the total caseload to 52,550. The daily new cases count rose to above 1,000 again for the first time in three days.
Among the locally transmitted cases, 373 were reported in Seoul, 299 in Gyeonggi Province and 46 in Incheon, west of Seoul. The country added 32 imported cases, increasing the total to 5,193.
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