"Receive Infectious Disease Information Before Traveling Abroad" Quarantine System Shifts to a Preventive Approach

[Financial News] As the annual number of entries and exits approaches 100 million, a customized alert service will be introduced to provide overseas travelers with infectious disease risk information and quarantine procedures via mobile devices.
The key point is to expand the existing quarantine system, which had focused on arrival checkpoints, into a preventive model that provides infectious disease information before departure.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on the 26th that it will announce a proposed revision to the enforcement rules of the Quarantine Act from Aug. 26 to Oct. 6.
The revision was prepared to establish detailed rules needed to provide information on quarantinable infectious diseases and conduct random sampling inspections of aircraft and ships, in line with the Quarantine Act revised in May. It also aims to streamline systems related to health status declarations for arrivals and ship quarantine.
The most notable change is the provision of customized infectious disease and health information for travelers entering and leaving the country.
Annual arrivals currently total 49.29 million, while departures reach 49.03 million. Because cross-border movement is considered a major risk factor for infectious diseases, the KDCA has established a legal basis to provide timely information on overseas outbreaks and prevention guidelines to travelers.
It will provide country- and region-specific infectious disease risk information and explain the quarantine procedures required upon entry for people departing to priority quarantine management areas or Quarantine Management Areas, as well as those entering Korea after staying in or transiting through such regions.
The system will work in cooperation with telecommunications carriers, using text messages and mobile messengers. As a result, overseas travelers will be able to receive the information they need through their mobile devices before and after visiting areas with infectious disease risks.
The ship quarantine system will also be changed to focus resources on vessels with higher risk. Under the previous system, ships departing from priority quarantine management areas and still within the maximum incubation period of the relevant disease were uniformly classified as high-risk vessels and subjected to onboard quarantine inspections. Going forward, vessels at anchor without berthing at domestic ports, which pose relatively low risk of spreading infectious diseases in Korea, will be shifted to document-based quarantine inspections.
To fill any blind spots in quarantine, onboard inspections based on random sampling will be carried out in parallel.
Random sampling inspections for aircraft and ships will also be formally introduced. Quarantine officers will board aircraft or ships selected as samples by the quarantine station chief and conduct quarantine investigations directly.
This is seen as a move away from uniformly inspecting all means of transport and toward the efficient allocation of quarantine resources based on infectious disease risk.
The revision also includes measures to reduce administrative burdens on travelers. The existing three forms — the 'health status questionnaire,' the 'declaration of stay or transit in Quarantine Management Areas, etc.,' and the 'personal quarantine declaration' — will be consolidated into a single 'health status declaration' that is more practical for on-site use.
Through this revision, the KDCA said it aims to strengthen advance information sharing on infectious disease risks and quarantine measures centered on high-risk groups, while also improving convenience for travelers.
Organizations or individuals with opinions on the revision may submit them by Oct. 6 through the KDCA's quarantine policy division or the National Law Information Center.

[email protected] Kang Jung-mo Reporter