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Travelers arriving at Incheon International Airport from Europe follow instructions from quarantine workers on Mar. 29. (Yonhap News)

Although the percentage of COVID-19 patients who have been cured and released from quarantine exceeded 50% this weekend, it’s too soon for South Koreans to let their guard down. People entering the country from overseas continue to test positive for the disease, and cluster infections are still occurring at nursing homes and other facilities. Since the number of new cases stubbornly refuses to decline, the South Korean government has announced that everyone entering the country from overseas will be required to quarantine themselves for two weeks, with the new measure taking effect on Apr. 1.

The government also said it will be setting up a deliberative body by Apr. 5 that will bring together medical and disease control experts and representatives from labor, the business sector, and NGOs to discuss bringing the tough social distancing measures to an end and shifting to quarantine measures more compatible to everyday routines.

New measures amount to de facto travel ban

On Mar. 29, South Korea’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced that it will be requiring everyone arriving in the country, regardless of region and nationality, to spend two weeks in self-quarantine, effective Apr. 1. The only exceptions will be those on diplomatic (A-1), official business (A02) and SOFA (A-3) visas and those who have been officially exempted from self-quarantine by a South Korean embassy before entering the country to conduct business or academic studies or to serve the public interest. Those who are granted these exceptions will be placed under active surveillance and will be required to provide health updates over the phone. Given the surging number of cases of COVID-19 around the world and the continuing diagnosis of people entering South Korea from overseas, the government concluded that additional measures are necessary.

People who are unable to self-quarantine, such as foreigners visiting South Korea on a short trip, will be quarantined for two weeks in facilities that have been prepared by the central government or local governments. The cost of the stay will be paid by the person being quarantined, whether they are South Korean citizens or not. The government expects that the cost will be about 100,000 won (US$82) per day, for a total of 1.4 million won (US$1,143). Those who manifest symptoms while on self-quarantine will be required to undergo testing at the closest community health center.

The disaster safety headquarters is also recommending self-quarantine for people who’ve entered the country from overseas during the two weeks before these measures were taken and is planning to have those individuals tested for COVID-19. “This basically amounts to a travel ban for people coming for sightseeing, so it should allow us to gain the advantages of a travel ban without actually taking that extreme step. We’ve left open some options for leaving the country because there are some matters that are essential for social and economic maintenance,” said Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo, who also serves as first vice director of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

While this weekend marked the point when the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 in South Korea exceeded the number who remain in quarantine, the public health authorities believe that ensuring that patients entering the country don’t cause additional transmission at the community level will be a crucial factor going forward.

South Korea said on Sunday that 105 new cases of COVID-19 had been diagnosed the previous day, bringing the country’s cumulative tally to 9,583. Among them, 5,033 people have recovered and been released from quarantine, exceeding the 4,398 patients in quarantine. Among Sunday’s new cases, 41 of them were people who had entered the country from overseas, amounting to 39% of the total.

“Arrival from overseas has been the most common route of transmission over the past two weeks. Cases among Korean nationals returning home from abroad could represent more than 40% of the total,” said Jung Eun-kyeong, director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). The region with the largest number of cases was Europe (23), followed by the Americas, including the US (14), and Asia, not including China (4).

While the number of large coronavirus clusters has declined recently, the disease continues to spread at hospitals and churches. As of Sunday, 75 cases have been confirmed in connection with Jei Miju Hospital in Daegu, while 13 cases have turned up at Manmin Central Church, in the Guro District of Seoul.

There has also been a steady uptick in patients testing positive for COVID-19 after being released from quarantine. A couple in their 30s and their 17-month-old daughter in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, were discharged after testing negative two times in a row on Mar. 15-20, but the entire family tested positive again on Mar. 27. The public health authorities are reviewing the case in question with clinical experts as they explore the possibility that the family was re-infected, that viral activity returned, or that there was a testing error.

South Korea’s disaster safety headquarters is planning to set up a deliberative body to create social guidelines that will be not only grounded in medical expertise but also acceptable to the public. Officials say they’re appointing figures from various walks of life who can speak for the public. They’ve also agreed to define five behavioral rules that people must follow in their everyday lives and to provide more specific guidelines about how those rules apply to various people, places, and situations.

Experts are also urging the government to be careful about transitioning to more routine quarantine measures. “Since infected people are still arriving from overseas and contact is still occurring at the community level, we’re going to see between 70 and 130 cases a day for the time being. Rather than talking about routine quarantine measures, we need to be doing even more to manage the situation. That means focusing our testing on people with suspicious symptoms and ensuring that people in self-quarantine are abiding by the rules,” said Eom Joong-sik, a professor of infectious diseases at Gachon University Gil Medical Center.

By Park Da-hae and Park Jun-yong, staff reporters

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