The government has decided to ban from Tuesday any foreigners who have visited China's Hubei Province over the past two weeks. The city of Wuhan in Hubei is the epicenter of a new coronavirus infection. The government also told Koreans who visited the region to quarantine themselves at home for two weeks and temporarily halted visa-free travel to Jeju Island by Chinese tourists. The government earlier said it would not impose entry bans but relented after a person in the Philippines who was infected with coronavirus died, the first death outside China. But the belated measures are too late and ineffective. Epidemic experts said it is not enough to block visitors from just Hubei Province since more than 40 percent of coronavirus infections in China occurred in other provinces.
Countries around the world have already taken steps to restrict or ban visitors from all of China. The U.S. and Australia ban foreigners who have visited China recently, while Singapore even imposes a transfer ban on flights from China. Russia, Mongolia and North Korea closed off their borders with China. Latin American countries, which have yet to report any coronavirus infections, are quickly canceling flights to and from China or banning the entry of Chinese visitors. These measures are not racist or malicious. They are simply safety measures to minimize contact with high-risk regions. It is the responsibility of a government to place top priority on the health of its people.
But still around 20,000 visitors from China enter Korea every day, and stringent measures should have been taken weeks ago faster than any other country. President Moon Jae-in last week vowed to deal with the crisis "so strongly as to be seen as excessive" but has failed to live up to his words.
The government and ruling party shuddered each time there was a call to ban the entry of Chinese visitors. The Chinese are our friends, they said, and we must help them out in tough times. They even ignored warnings by the Korean Medical Association, accusing it of being "politically motivated." But who is really politically motivated? Is the government being so reckless because it wants to ensure that Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Korea before April's general election?
