Feb. 4--At 12:34 a.m. Tuesday, Korean Air Flight 854 arrived at Incheon Airport, the main gateway to South Korea, carrying 110 passengers from Beijing.
The flight was the first to touch down here from China since sweeping restrictions on arrivals from the country took effect the same day, as Seoul ramps up measures to keep the new coronavirus at bay.
As of Tuesday, Korea had barred entry to all foreigners who have been to Hubei province, the hub of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, in the past two weeks. For all arrivals from China -- both Korean and foreigners alike -- rigorous quarantine and inspection procedures were required before they could enter.
Upon arrival, the passengers, wearing masks and some also wearing goggles, were routed to one of three designated quarantine areas for arrivals from China, which opened the previous day. There are two special China-only quarantine sections at Terminal 1, and one at Terminal 2, manned by a large number of airport officials and 50 officials dispatched from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
All passengers had to fill out a health questionnaire and declare whether they had fever or respiratory symptoms. In addition, foreigners had to hand in a special quarantine report, stating their domestic addresses and phone numbers and whether they had visited or transited via Hubei province. Once the forms are handed in, the quarantine officers checked all passengers with thermometers.
A group of over 20 officials called the mobile numbers provided by passengers on the spot to verify the numbers.
Once their contact information was verified, the passengers received "quarantine certificates," which were submitted at the final stage, customs. Without the certificates, entry was denied.
All passengers from the first flight cleared customs, with no cases of fever or other symptoms and no unverified phone numbers, according to the authority.
Incheon International Airport was emptier than usual on Tuesday, with travelers, employees and security officials all covered up in masks and looking tense. Warning signs about the coronavirus were displayed on dashboards and announcements were made throughout the airport with information and instructions.
"The number of people, as well as Chinese, at the airport definitely dropped in comparison to the news on the virus," said a female employee surnamed Im, at a currency exchange desk at Incheon's Terminal 2.
"I am wearing a mask all day while I work, and no customers have complained so far. Wearing a mask is regarded as natural, and our company requires to check temperature three times a day and send the data," an employee working at Jamba Juice at the airport told The Korea Herald.
On Tuesday alone, about 118 flights from China are set to arrive in Korea, mostly through Incheon International Airport and few through Jeju International Airport.
About 10,000 people are expected to enter from China on the same day, based on the previous day's stats of 11,381 passengers entering Korea from China -- 3,090 Korean nationals and 8,291 foreigners -- down to one-third from a month before.
So far, no travelers were denied entry into Korea for having traveled to Hubei or not providing verifiable contact information.
Korea confirmed one additional case of coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infected to 16 here.
The death toll from the virus, which is officially called the 2019 novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCov, now stands at 425 in China, one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong. Around the world, the virus has infected more than 20,438 people in more than 25 countries.
Following Seoul's unprecedented decision to ban entry from Hubei region, calls are growing for Korea to expand the restriction to all of China, on fears that the virus had spread to other regions across the country.
"I am still feeling concerned, despite the measures (to block entry from Hubei province)," said Sohn Eun-hye, a female from Pohang traveling to the US, told The Korea Herald. "I think simply block the entry won't be effective, as people (from China) are traveling to other places around the world as well. The government should block even further."
"With the Chinese New Year, I think you have to take a more extreme measure because of the amount of travel that you have in China," Robert Hannah, a US citizen who arrived at the airport from Taiwan.
"I don't see anything bad (in the government's decision to block Chinese from Hubei). Quarantine is everywhere," said Lilia Fakhretdinova, a Russian citizen who is traveling from Korea to Indonesia. "China should do more to stop the spread of the virus."
(c)2020 the Asia News Network (Hamburg, Germany)
Visit the Asia News Network (Hamburg, Germany) at www.asianewsnet.net/home/
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
