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| Passengers from Europe at the Incheon International Airport mote to take a bus which would take them to a quarantine facility, Monday. / Yonhap |
By Kim Se-jeong
Calls are growing among medical experts for the government to quarantine and conduct coronavirus testing on people arriving from the United States, as the number of confirmed cases there has soared in recent weeks.
The total number of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. was 46,145 as of Monday (local time), with 582 deaths.
On Monday, eight people who had recently returned from the United States to Korea were confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus ― the Korea Center for Disease Control and prevention (KCDC) said four additional cases from the U.S. were confirmed Tuesday.
"As the number of cases in the U.S. is increasing quickly, the government should conduct virus test on all arrivals from North America," said Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious diseases medicine at Korea University Guro Hospital.
Currently, arrivals from the U.S. get tested only when they show symptoms.
For arrivals from Europe, the government is running the virus test on all passengers and releases only those who test negative.
"Not only people arriving from Europe, people who come from the United States need to have a two-week quarantine," Uhm Joong-sik from Gacheon University Gil Medical Center, told a local newspaper outlet. "Given that more than half of arrivals from Europe and the United States are Korean nationals, they would not have a problem complying with self-quarantine regulations."
The government said it was aware of the new coronavirus danger from the U.S. and was discussing what to do. "We're discussing testing and quarantining arrivals from countries outside Europe such as the U.S.," Yoon Tae-ho, the chief quarantine official said.
Meanwhile, Korea reported 76 new infections Monday, bringing the total to 9,037, with 124 fatalities. The total number includes 3,507 who have recovered from the infection after testing positive and going through the quarantine process, showing the number of people recovering has now surpassed new cases.
Twenty-two out of 76 contracted the virus overseas ― 18 in Europe and four in the U.S. ― according to the KCDC.
The government said it had completed testing 32,000 patients and medical service providers at elderly care centers in Daegu and found 224 had contracted the virus. The government took the action in response to a growing number of infection clusters. On Monday, Daegu saw another 14 cases at care facilities for the elderly.
The government announced Tuesday it had also changed virus screening rules for arrivals from Europe to ease the long delays in processing. It said that instead of keeping people in facilities until the test results become available, those without symptoms would be released but required to take a second test at a public medical center near their final destinations.
