Korea announced it will stop classifying COVID-19 as a health crisis, lifting almost all pandemic-related restrictions next month, including mandatory isolation, and treat the disease as an endemic. Placing the contagious disease in the endemic category means its presence has become more predictable and manageable much like seasonal influenza.
Korea started requiring COVID-19 testing for arrivals from China on Monday, with such measures causing confusion and inconvenience at Incheon International Airport, the gateway to Korea, throughout the day.
South Korea has started Covid-19 testing for arrivals from China at Incheon International Airport.Under the new restrictions which came into effect from Monday, all arrivals from China are obliged to undergo a PCR test within the first day of .
The government unveiled, Friday, a detailed roadmap on lifting the indoor mask mandate, cautiously predicting that it may be scrapped by the end of January at the earliest. Yet medical experts are still debating whether the country is ready to ditch the indoor mask rule, one of the last remaining COVID-19 restrictions in Korea. While some doctors viewed that masks should now be more of a personal choice, others expressed concerns that the premature lifting of the mandate may put vulnerable groups at risk.