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| A man sits in front of a COVID-19 testing center at Incheon International Airport in this March 29 photo. Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
Korea will no longer require arrivals to the country to register their health information on pre-entry quarantine information system, known as Q-Code, concerning COVID-19 and mpox, beginning Saturday.
Still, temperature checks will continue to see if travelers show symptoms associated with the two diseases, according to a statement from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Thursday.
The KDCA announced that it decided to lift all quarantine management zones related to the two diseases, as cases of the diseases and death rates have stabilized.
In July 2020, Korea designated all countries around the world as quarantine management zones due to COVID-19.
Korea has also designated 47 countries including some nations in Europe and the Americas as quarantine management zones in relation to mpox, formerly known as monkeypox.
The KDCA said that the number of deaths from COVID-19 has remained low, though a daily average of new infections for the first week of July was tallied at 21,858, up 25 percent from the previous week.
It added the number of mpox patients has decreased around the world, and most of the patients have shown mild symptoms.
The Q-Code system has been used to report travelers' health conditions to local authorities before they board a flight to Korea.
The KDCA added that the Q-Code will continue to be required for other infectious diseases, such as the Ebola virus disease.
Currently, Uganda and Congo are designated as quarantine management zones for Ebola virus disease, while some areas in China and Cambodia are for avian influenza. Thirteen nations including Saudi Arabia and Israel are for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and 26 countries including India and the Philippines are for cholera.
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