key: cord-0822692-953cmkp0 authors: nan title: Coronavirus Disease-19: Quarantine Framework for Travelers Entering Korea date: 2020-06-03 journal: Osong Public Health Res Perspect DOI: 10.24171/j.phrp.2020.11.3.04 sha: 03e527603db6f7bbd155eb42271ba2b63f849de8 doc_id: 822692 cord_uid: 953cmkp0 South Korea is operating a flexible quarantine management system which is based on the results of epidemiological investigations of patients arriving from overseas with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), and closely monitoring COVID-19 outbreaks. South Korea has designated countries with a localized, high prevalence of infection as “quarantine inspection required areas” and has reinforced quarantine measures by applying special immigration procedures for people entering South Korea. Furthermore, South Korea also provides information on international travel history of entrants (who are South Korean citizens and foreign nationals) to all medical institutions, through the smart quarantine information system. On March 11(th) 2020, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. Inevitably, the number of patients from overseas with COVID-19 (based on 10,000 people entering South Korea), increased to 10 cases in the second week of March, 37 cases in the third week, and 67.7 cases in the fourth week. However, after enforcing quarantine strengthening measures, and with a decrease in the number of people entering the country, the number of cases decreased to 52.0 in the first week of April. quarantine measures by designating countries with a high prevalence of localized COVID-19 as "quarantine inspection required areas." Special immigration procedures were also established and implemented to strengthen quarantine management of individuals from such countries. This article presents the quarantine system used in South Korea, which seeks to prevent infectious diseases at the point of entry. It links the quarantine system with the infectious disease management system in the community to prevent the influx and spread of COVID-19. Furthermore, this study aimed to elucidate the strengthened and flexible quarantine measures in South Korea for people entering the country, according to the degree of risk, determined by the prevalence of COVID-19 in the country from which the individual departed from. Based on passenger information from the airlines, the smart quarantine information system links Information and Communication Technologies using the roaming records of mobile carrier companies, the passport information system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the immigration records management system of the Ministry of Justice, and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (which is a health institution for the local community), the information of individuals from "quarantine inspection required areas" could be confirmed and passed onto local medical institutions (medical facilities and hospitals) during COVID-19 monitoring periods ( Figure 1 ). To check the overseas travel history of people entering South Korea who presented to medical institutions with symptoms of COVID-19, it was necessary to determine whether they had visited countries with a prevalence of COVID-19. There Since March 18 th , as the outbreak of COVID-19 spread across the world, immigration information on all people entering South Korea from overseas was provided to community medical facilities ( Table 1 ). The monitoring period for COVID-19 was 14 days, during which information on overseas travel history was provided to local medical facilities. However, since there were newly confirmed positive cases after the 14-day period, immigration records were provided to local medical facilities for 21 days post-entry to South Korea, to allow for facilities to refer to this information during treatment of patients with COVID-19. The KCDC designated mainland China, the first country that reported an outbreak of COVID-19, as a "quarantine inspection required area" on January 28 th , and reinforced quarantine measures for people entering South Korea who had departed from China. Considering the increased risks, such as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeding 10,000 (Table 2 ). Following the report of a mass outbreak of pneumonia with unknown cause in Wuhan City in January 2020 [6] , the KCDC designated Wuhan City as a "quarantine inspection required area" (January 8 th , 2020) to prevent the spread of infection China, which accounted for more than 90% of COVID-19 patients worldwide, was assessed as high [7] . Accordingly, the "quarantine inspection required area" was expanded from Wuhan City to the entirety of mainland China on January 28 th , and the quarantine was strengthened for these people In particular, the proportion of cases from the United States accounted for 55.0% of the total number of confirmed cases from overseas in the first week of April, which was higher than that of Europe (30.7%). Although the number of confirmed cases from overseas was decreasing, the risk of cases from the United States appeared to be increasing considering the proportion of confirmed cases from the United States of the total number of overseas confirmed cases ( Table 2 ). There Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the KCDC has been closely monitoring the overseas trends of COVID-19 to prevent spread of the disease into South Korea, and into the local communities. Furthermore, the KCDC plans to continue to operate a flexible quarantine system based on the degree of risk in other countries. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Article 12 of the Quarantine Act Standard operating procedure for overseas infectious disease in quarantine Notice of infection diseases deemed necessary for urgent quarantine measures European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Risk assessment: Outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): Increased transmission beyond Chinafourth update National Health Commission of the Peoples of China European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control World Health Organization We acknowledge all the effort and hard work of staff in the KCDC in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.