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A medical worker at a walk-thru screening center in the parking lot of Seoul Sports Complex on Apr. 3. (Kim Hye-yun, staff photographer)

The South Korean police have asked the courts to issue an arrest warrant for a man in his 60s who broke quarantine on two occasions, even visiting a sauna. The man had been notified by the authorities that he was obliged to quarantine himself because of potential exposure to the coronavirus. This is the first time the police have sought a warrant for a violation of self-quarantine measures.

“This morning, we requested an arrest warrant for a resident of Seoul’s Songpa District who has repeatedly violated self-quarantine measures since returning from the US,” said Lee Yong-pyo, commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, during a press conference held at the agency’s office in the Naeja neighborhood of Seoul’s Jongno District on Apr. 13.

The 68-year-old man had returned from the US on Apr. 10. The first time he broke self-quarantine, the police escorted him home. But after he broke quarantine once again, visiting a restaurant and even a sauna, the police arrested him on the afternoon of Apr. 11 on the charge of violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. During the press conference on Monday, Lee explained that the police had investigated 28 people connected with 27 violations of self-quarantine measures and that they’d asked the prosecutors to file charges against three of those individuals.

Earlier, the police had laid out the main factors they will consider when deciding whether to request an arrest warrant for people who have broken quarantine. Those factors are whether there was a risk of infection, whether the individual came into contact with a large number of people by visiting establishments such as nightclubs or bathhouses, whether they’d deliberately left their phone at home before going out, whether they’d tried to hide their violation by falsely answering their caseworker’s questions over the phone, whether they’d broken quarantine repeatedly, and whether they’d disobeyed their caseworker’s orders to return home or violently obstructed their caseworker’s duties.

“Going forward, we’ll continue to consider these factors as we deal strictly with those who break self-quarantine,” said Lee, the police commissioner.

“Because his test for COVID-19 came back negative, there should be no problem with putting him in jail, pending the issuance of an arrest warrant, as long as he’s kept in solitary confinement,” Lee said, referring to the Songpa District resident who broke quarantine.

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter

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