New rules for travelers from Hong Kong, Macau

Health officials guide travelers from China to a Covid-19 testing site at Incheon International Airport on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Travelers from Hong Kong and Macau will have to submit negative Covid-19 test results before boarding flights to Korea starting Saturday.

On Monday, Korea put new restrictions on travelers coming from mainland China, but they did not apply to flights from Hong Kong and Macau. Worried that people from the mainland would travel through those two autonomous regions to avoid the new rules, Korean health authorities on Tuesday announced slightly less onerous rules for flights from Hong Kong and Macau.

After submitting test results before boarding, passengers from Hong Kong and Macau who show symptoms upon arrival will have to take a PCR coronavirus test. If test results turn out positive, they will be required to quarantine for seven days.

Passengers without symptoms won’t be tested.

People arriving from Hong Kong and Macau also must register their information on the Q-Code system, accessible via a website created by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), to report their health condition to Korean health authorities before boarding flights to Korea.

From Monday, all travelers from China have been required to use the Q-Code system and be PCR tested upon their arrival even if they don’t show any symptoms.

Starting Thursday, restrictions on China will be strengthened even further with an additional requirement for all Korea-bound travelers – including Korean nationals and Chinese with residency status in Korea – to show a negative test result before getting on planes.

For all travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau, the pre-arrival negative test result must be from a PCR test taken within 48 hours of boarding or from a rapid antigen test issued by a clinic 24 hours before boarding.

Any short-term visitors from China, Hong Kong and Macau who test positive for the coronavirus will be sent to a state-run quarantine facility for seven days and pay for the expenses.

For hospitalized Covid treatment, the KDCA said in a press release that, “under the principle of reciprocity,” Chinese nationals will have to pay for their treatment. Hospital admission fees for citizens of Macau and Hong Kong will be covered by the Korean government, but medical treatment and meal charges won’t, said the KDCA.

Among 1,052 people who arrived from China on Monday at Incheon International Airport, 309 short-term visitors were tested for the coronavirus at the airport and 61 of them, about 19.7 percent, tested positive, said the KDCA Tuesday.

Customs officials said they expect some 1,000 people from China to fly in every day for the time being, though Korean embassies and consulates in China recently stopped issuing short-term visas for travel until Jan. 31.

The strengthened restrictions on travelers from China come amid exploding Covid cases in the country, and millions are estimated to be coming down with the virus each day. Bloomberg News reported that around 18 percent of the population was infected in the first 20 days of December.

While announcing the new measures for Hong Kong and Macau, the KDCA said in a statement that Covid infections and deaths were rising in Hong Kong, and that travelers from Hong Kong outnumbered those from China last month.

The KDCA also stressed that it took into account how other major countries such as the United States and Canada were handling travelers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]