South Korea requires a nucleic acid test before entering the country. The mainland must hold a negative test certificate when arriving in Taiwan via Hong Kong and Macau.
[The Epoch Times, January 04, 2023](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporters Zeng Xiaoxun, Zhang Yingyu, and Ye Zeyu from Hong Kong) As the mainland and Hong Kong are about to clear customs, many places have recently tightened the entry and epidemic prevention restrictions for tourists from Hong Kong. South Korea announced that from Saturday (7th), inbound passengers from Hong Kong and Macau must submit a negative nucleic acid test certificate within 48 hours before boarding. Taiwan also announced that from Friday (6th) to the 31st of this month, passengers departing from the mainland and entering Taiwan via Hong Kong and Macau must have a nucleic acid test report within 48 hours before boarding at the departure point or a rapid antigen test report within 24 hours. Test negative report.
South Korea earlier required that passengers from mainland China to undergo nucleic acid testing after entry from Monday (2nd), and required that passengers from mainland China must submit a nucleic acid test within 48 hours before departure from Thursday (5th) or The rapid antigen test negative certificate within 24 hours, and the issuance of short-term visas to South Korea will be temporarily suspended.
The South Korean health authority announced again yesterday that starting from Saturday, inbound passengers from Hong Kong and Macau must submit a negative nucleic acid test certificate within 48 hours before boarding.
Starting from Sunday (1st), Taiwan requires passengers traveling to Taiwan from mainland China to undergo nucleic acid testing at airports and ports. The Taiwan Epidemic Command Center announced again yesterday that due to the severity of the epidemic situation in the mainland, the epidemic situation in various places continues to rise, and it is expected that the flow of people around the Chinese New Year will intensify the epidemic situation. The overall epidemic situation may last for more than 3 months.
The command center also pointed out that the indicators announced by the mainland are obviously underestimated. Many countries and regions have announced to strengthen the quarantine measures for tourists entering the mainland. Among them, the number of imported cases from the mainland in South Korea and Japan has increased significantly recently. A total of 657 mainland tourists underwent saliva nucleic acid testing in the past two days, of which 164 were infected, an infection rate of 25%.
In the week leading up to the Chinese New Year, bookings from the mainland to Taiwan had grown to more than 11,000, authorities said. Authorities will continue to strengthen the monitoring of mutant strains in overseas cases to assess the risks brought by the new mutant strains and their impact on the local epidemic.
Chen Guoji wrote to the consul generals of many countries
Entry restrictions are expected to be lifted
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Chen Guoji, said on his social networking site yesterday that he noticed that Australia, Canada, France, India, South Korea and the United States recently required passengers from Hong Kong to provide a negative test certificate before boarding the plane. Therefore, the day before yesterday, I wrote to the Consul Generals of relevant countries in Hong Kong to express their concern and elaborate on the latest epidemic prevention arrangements in Hong Kong, “so that the relevant countries can better grasp the actual situation and re-examine the measures”.
In his post, he reiterated a series of previously relaxed anti-epidemic measures by the Hong Kong government, hoping that relevant countries can reconsider and withdraw relevant restrictions. ◇
Editor in charge: Li Wei