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The interior of the temporary isolation facilities for COVID-positive Chinese arrivals in Korea. (courtesy of the Ministry of Health and Welfare)

South Korean disease control authorities are refuting claims coming from China that the South Korean government is isolating COVID-positive Chinese nationals in poor facilities and treating them in a discriminatory manner or as criminals. According to local health officials, none of this is true.

China’s state-run Global Times published an editorial around midnight on Tuesday demanding an explanation from the Korean government regarding the entry and quarantine procedures for Chinese nationals confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 upon arrival in South Korea.

The article criticized the Korean quarantine facilities, where Chinese nationals who test positive for COVID-19 must stay for seven days at their own expense. According to the article, the facilities are in poor condition and don’t even provide hot water, which is a necessity for Chinese people.

In addition, when Chinese nationals arrive at Incheon International Airport, they have to hang a yellow card around their necks. Chinese netizens lashed out at the policy, saying other foreigners are not made to wear the yellow card and that it’s “insulting” and treating Chinese nationals “like criminals.”

The South Korean side, however, disagrees.

“The three facilities provided to short-term COVID-positive foreigners coming from China are better than tourist hotel-level rooms normally used by Chinese tourists,” Kim Joo-young, head of the medical resource support team at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, said on Wednesday.

In an additional written response, the Ministry of Health and Welfare explained that “the hotel rooms are rooms used by Koreans as well,” adding that the rooms consist of “clean bathrooms with hot water as a standard.” Photos of the rooms, lunchboxes and medicines such as fever reducers were also released.

As of Monday, 86 people are currently staying at quarantine facilities and 32 people have been released from the week-long quarantine so far.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency also responded to this issue in writing, saying that the yellow cards are used “to guide the way to testing centers at the airport” and that these cards are “not only used for Chinese nationals but applies equally to foreigners of all nationalities.” With their consent, a picture of a British short-term visitor wearing the yellow card was also released.

Meanwhile, the domestic basic reproduction number, which can estimate the spread of the COVID-19 virus, stood at 0.95 in the first week of January (Jan. 1-7), and has remained lower than 1 for 12 weeks since the second week of October (Oct. 9-15), when it was recorded at 0.89.

In other words, each infection is spread to less than one person, meaning that the spread of the virus is subsiding.

“Last week, the average number of confirmed cases per day [after the last week of December] has been declining for two weeks in a row,” Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyoo-hong said. “The seventh wave is now on a downward trend, with the basic reproduction number falling below 1 in 12 weeks,” Cho added.

By Lim Jae-hee, staff reporter; Kwon Ji-dam, staff reporter; Choi Hyun-june, Beijing correspondent

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