MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2023) South Korea will cancel mandatory post-arrival COVID-19 testing for travelers from China on March 1 and will stop requiring PCR tests before departure to the country from March 10, amid the stabilization of the epidemiological environment in China, South Korean media reported on Wednesday.
South Korea had required travelers from China to present negative COVID-19 test results before boarding flights into the country and undergo an additional PCR test on the day of their arrival in South Korea since early January. Moreover, the issuance of short-stay visas had been temporarily suspended.
"We believe that an additional easing of quarantine measures will be possible," Kim Sung-ho, a senior interior ministry official, was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying.
On the same day, the South Korean government also allowed flights from China to land at other airports besides Incheon International Airport located near Seoul. In addition, the authorities will increase the number of flights between South Korea and China from 62 to 80 per week by the end of February and up to 100 per week in March, Yonhap reported.
The easing of COVD-19 measures is driven by the decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases among arrivals from China to 0.6% in the third week of February from 18.4% in the first week of January, the report said.
South Korea also resumed issuing short-stay visas for Chinese tourists on February 11, according to the news agency. The Chinese government, in turn, began issuing short-stay visas for South Koreans on Saturday.
In December 2022, the Chinese government started to gradually ease its "zero tolerance" policy toward COVID-19 cases, which had been the strictest in the world for almost three years, following mass protests against restrictions in a number of cities. In January 2023, China completely canceled quarantine and PCR testing for people coming from abroad and resumed accepting applications from Chinese citizens for passports to travel to other countries for tourism.
