S. Korea to impose tighter immigration procedures on more European nations

SEOUL - South Korea said Thursday that it will impose tighter immigration procedures on more European countries amid the soaring cases of the COVID-19 across Europe in recent days.

All travelers arriving from Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands will be subject to special immigration procedures beginning midnight March 15 local time, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.

Under the intensified procedures, all entrants, both South Korean and foreign nationals, will be required to get fever checks and submit papers on health conditions at airports.

They will also be required to download a self-diagnosis smart phone app to submit self-diagnosis results for 14 days and to be placed under intensive care if they show symptoms.

All entrants arriving from other countries after departing the five European nations for the past two weeks will be subject to the special immigration procedures.

It came amid the recent surge in infected patients across Europe, with the number topping 12,000 in Italy and the readings in France and Spain surpassing 2,000 as of 11:00 am local time. The cases in Germany neared 2,000 and the figure in Iran reached 9,000.

South Korea already levied the tighter immigration procedures on Italy and Iran from March 12, Japan from March 9 and China from Feb 4 respectively.