Fully vaccinated travelers from PH required to undergo 14-day quarantine in South Korea

Fully vaccinated travelers from the Philippines will still be required to undergo 14-day quarantine when they arrive in South Korea due to concerns about the Delta variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Korea’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters announced Tuesday that the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Pakistan have been added to the list of countries whose travelers will be required to undergo quarantine even if they have been fully vaccinated.

The Korean government earlier announced that it will issue quarantine exemption letters to fully vaccinated travelers entering the country starting on July 1 for business, academic and humanitarian (like funeral visits) purposes.

The 21 countries whose travelers are required to undergo 14-day quarantine in Korea are South Africa, Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Suriname, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, Malta, Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Philippines.

Travelers from these countries need to pay 100,000 won (about $89) per day or a 14-day total of 1.4 million won ($1,240) to stay at a government-run facility for the quarantine.

In addition, the Korean government plans to implement thorough quarantine controls to prevent the COVID-19 variants from entering the country by subjecting travelers to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests three times: before arrival, one day after arrival and after one week.

As of June 29, Korea has 156,167 confirmed COVID-19 cases including 147,077 recoveries and 2,017 deaths, leaving 7,073 active cases.

In comparison, as of June 28, the Philippines has 1.4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases including 1.32 million recoveries and 24,456 deaths, leaving 52,029 active cases.