Restrictions on visitors from China could get tougher

Travelers arriving from China being escorted for PCR testing at Incheon International Airport on Monday. [YONHAP]

The Korean government plans to limit visas for Chinese and flights from China if its Covid-19 situation worsens.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said it is considering raising the travel advisory health notice to level 2 if the situation in China doesn't improve.

Last April 2022, level 2 travel advisories were lifted for the last three countries Korea applied them to: Ukraine, Myanmar and Vietnam.

On Monday the KDCA briefed President Yoon Suk Yeol on its goals for this year, which are “returning to normal from crisis,” health and safety.

The agency is planning to lift Korea's indoor mask wearing mandate within the first quarter, which is considered to be the last restriction still in place.

“I told the KDCA," Yoon said Monday, "which is entirely focused on countering Covid-19, not to consider diplomacy, economics, trade nor politics and only think of the public’s health and safety. We have to establish a highly intense system that protects the safety of the people.”

Chinese tourists started coming to Seoul after the Chinese government abandoned its zero-Covid policy and lifted travel bans.

On Jan. 2, Korea tightened rules on incoming travelers from China, including allowing them only one port of entry -- Incheon International Airport -- and performing Covid tests on passengers after disembarked.

In addition, people traveling from China are required to submit negative Covid test results before boarding the plane to Seoul. This also applies to people coming from Hong Kong and Macau.

“We are especially concerned about the situation in China since Chinese quarantine authorities announced a significant easing of its quarantine policies,” said Jung Ki-suck, chair of the government advisory committee for COVID-19 under the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters on Monday. “As such we plan to temporarily maintain the various measures that were implemented preemptively since Jan. 2 to minimize the entry of those traveling from China that are infected until the situation in China stabilizes.”

“[Despite] requesting negative test results before boarding, some 20 percent tested positive on the tests that we conducted on arrival,” said Jung, a professor at the Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital specializing in allergy and critical care medicine. “It seems those that tested negative before leaving China turned positive within 48 hours. This means that [Covid-19 infections] in China still continue to spread at an alarmingly fast speed.”

“We believe that the major wave in China, which started around early December, has already peaked,” Jung said. “However, as [China] is a vast country and each region has a different environment, we expect a second or even a third wave."

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]