20% of Chinese Travelers to Korea Test Positive for COVID; One Infected Traveler Escapes Quarantine

This is quite a high rate of positives coming in which makes you imagine how many people must be infected right now in China:

Seen here is the arrival hall of Incheon International Airport’s Terminal 1, west of Seoul, on Jan. 3, 2023. According to quarantine authorities, 61, or 19.7 percent, of 309 travelers from China were found to have been infected with the virus in COVID-19 tests at the airport the previous day, when South Korea began to require a PCR test for all entrants from the neighboring country.

Yonhap

It appears the ROK needs to work on their quarantine procedures because one infected Chinese traveler was able to escape by getting on to a bus:

A man of Chinese nationality has escaped a quarantine facility, Tuesday night, where he was placed in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Korea earlier in the day. 

The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency said Wednesday that the 41-year-old Chinese national, who had tested positive in a PCR test upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, disappeared from a hotel on Yeongjongdo Island at around 10 p.m. Tuesday. The hotel is currently being used as a government-designated isolation facility for foreign nationals.

The man allegedly ran away after arriving at the hotel with other virus carriers via a government-provided bus. Footage from surveillance cameras showed that he was last spotted near a large retailer located about 300 meters from the hotel, but his whereabouts are still unknown.

Korea Times

It is going to be interesting to see if China’s COVID surge leads to a surge of infections in other nations in the region like Korea and Japan.