South Korea announced, on Saturday, that it is going to restrict foreign arrivals from South Africa and seven other nations due to a new Coronovirus variant Omicron.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) called an emergency meeting Saturday evening with 13 ministries, finally announcing that all foreigners who have been in the newly listed African countries will be banned from entering the country.
The eight countries are South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi.
Korean citizens departing from the southern African countries shall be quarantined for 10 days, regardless of their vaccination status upon arrival.
They will be asked to take a PCR test on the first, fifth and last day of quarantine and must test negative before they can be released.
Moreover, the KDCA pointed out that the government may expand its list of countries under higher warnings depending on different risk factors.
Many countries tightened their travel restrictions after a new coronavirus variant B.1.1.529, named Omicron, was identified in southern Africa earlier this week.
Japan tightened restrictions on travelers from South Africa and five nearby countries, according to the government’s top spokesman.
“We have seen reports that it might be more transmissible (than other variants) and that the effectiveness of vaccines against it might be uncertain,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.
“So we have decided to take utmost precaution,” he told a press conference, assuring that no cases of the variant had been discovered in Japan.
Nevertheless Japan has temporarily halted flights from these southern African nations: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and Lesotho.
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