Korea to omit quarantine probes for some vehicles, partially or wholly

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) will omit, partially and wholly, the quarantine investigation on vehicles, such as vessels and airplanes, if there were no patients, medical workers, or deaths regarding infectious diseases.

KDCA said it would revise the lower statutes of the Quarantine Act aimed to simplify the quarantine investigation process by, for instance, allowing the submission of investigation documents using communication devices.

The revision is designed to work out standards for skipping parts or all of the quarantine investigation process and specifying omitting probes' scope.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency will omit part or whole of the quarantine investigation process on vehicles that meet specific criteria. (KDCA)

The vehicles that can wholly skip the investigation process are those without infected patients, doctors, pathogens, or death cases involved. More specifically, they include vehicles going to foreign countries where infectious diseases are unlikely to spread; vehicles that do not unload people or cargo and stay in Korea temporarily; military vehicles notified the lack of patients or contagious agents; and vehicles whose probes were asked by heads of central administrative agencies and recognized by KDCA head.

The vehicles subject to partial omittance of investigations are those asked by the unification minister to skip probes, and vehicles that unload people, not cargo, and stay in Korea temporarily.

KDCA will also establish overseas infectious disease report centers at airports and land arrivals to prevent infectious diseases.

“We expect the revision of subordinate laws of the quarantine law will improve expertise and secure effectiveness, providing the opportunity to introduce an electronic quarantine system,” KDCA Director Jeong Eun-kyeong said.

The revised regulations went into effect as of Friday.