Infections Keep Increasing Among Arrivals from Abroad

Forty one out of 105 new coronavirus infections confirmed Sunday were people arriving from overseas, health authorities here said. Out of a total 9,583 confirmed cases, 4.3 percent or 412 were people arriving from overseas.

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Inside the country, the number of infections has dropped from 658 a week before the government enforced stronger social distancing rules on March 22 to 397 a week later. The government ordered all religious and public facilities to close down and urged the public not to hold any group meetings at all until April 5.

But in Seoul, 53 of the 88 new cases from March 22 to 28 were travelers from overseas, mostly Koreans who study abroad, according to city officials. Korean students from overseas made up the bulk of newly confirmed infections, which rose from 701 to 916 in Seoul and surrounding Incheon and Gyeonggi Province over the same period.

Yoo Jin-hong, the head of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases said, "Infections in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province have started to ease, but cases are continuing to rise in Gyeonggi Province and Seoul and are surging in Incheon".

Most of the cases counted in Incheon are in fact travelers from overseas who tested positive at Incheon International Airport.

In a bid to discourage foreigners from traveling here, the government has announced that all arrivals from abroad will have to quarantine themselves at home or in government-run facilities from Wednesday. The measure seeks to avoid an outright ban, reducing the number of foreign travelers to zero while keeping the doors open for Koreans who are desperate to come home.

But critics say that is still not enough as the drawn-out epidemic has exhausted medical workers and restricted everyday life for too long. The government's plan to reopen schools on April 6 is unlikely to work out as infections keep rising despite social distancing.

Some visitors from overseas have been caught violating self-quarantine rules. One Briton in Suwon and a German student in Busan were spotted out in public facilities in violation of their 14-day self-quarantine order.

Kim Woo-joo at Korea University said, "Coronavirus infections will not ease as long as we keep our borders wide open. We need to ban all foreigners and focus our medical resources on treating our own people".