South Korea offers quarantine-free travel as Asia’s ‘zero-Covid’ economies stay isolated

Quarantine-free travel for vaccinated visitors falls short of full reopening, yet looks bold in a region showing little appetite for easing border controls

The country of more than 51 million has never had a lockdown and has managed to keep deaths low, while still reporting hundreds of new cases every day

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People walk through the Myeongdong shopping district of South Korean capital Seoul in May. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:09pm, 2 Jul 2021Updated: 2:34pm, 5 Jul 2021

As much of the world went into lockdown last year during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, South Korea bucked the trend with a strategy aimed at keeping as much of its economy open as possible.

More than 18 months into the global health crisis, it is once again blazing a trail as a rare example of an Asia-Pacific economy now taking concrete steps to reopen its borders.

Since Thursday, fully vaccinated visitors have been able to skip an otherwise compulsory two week-quarantine if they are visiting family, or travelling for business, academic or public interest reasons – so long as they did not travel through one of 21 countries deemed to be high risk.

Travellers from India – a high-risk country – are guided by police upon arrival at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport on Friday. Photo: Yonhap/EPA

Eligible travellers must have been inoculated with a World Health Organization-approved vaccine and need to apply in advance via their nearest diplomatic mission, submitting proof of vaccination and documents proving family ties or other reasons for travel. A negative Covid-19 test is also required before departure and on arrival.

Anyone vaccinated in South Korea has been exempt from self-isolation requirements for returning travellers since early May – part of a raft of measures aimed at encouraging people to get jabbed that include an easing of capacity limits at entertainment venues and the ditching of an outdoor mask-wearing mandate for those who have received at least one vaccine dose.