South Korea travel update: No more quarantine for fully vaccinated foriegn travellers from March 21

The South Korean Health Ministry on Friday announced plans to remove quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated foreign travellers from March 21. Earlier, travellers entering South Korea were supposed to undergo a seven-day self-quarantine.

The ministry informed that people who are fully vaccinated against Coronavirus will be exempted from self-quarantine when entering South Korea.

Here fully vaxxed people refer to only those who have received two vaccines of COVID-19 vaccines two weeks earlier but less than 180 days ago. Howere, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Myanmar, are excluded from the self-quarantine exemption.

However, international travellers will still need to take the rapid antigen tests twice six and seven days after entering South Korea.

Apparently, just the day after the announcement, on Saturday the East Asian nation recorded a new daily record of 383,665 COVID-19 cases. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency shared the information amid a surge of Omicron cases in the country.

On the other hand, southeast Asian nations such as Thailand and Cambodia reopened their borders to tourists in November. But in December, soon after Omicron, Thailand suspended most tourist arrivals but again on February 1, the tourism resumed under their “Test & Go” program.

Soon after, Bali followed the league and reopened to overseas travellers and on February 10, The Philippines reopened with no quarantine requirements. While Vietnam also announced reopening on March 15, Malaysia on Tuesday announced it is planning to open its border on April 1 to foreign travellers.