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| Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, third from left, speaks during a pan-government meeting on response to the coronavirus outbreak at the Government Complex Seoul, Sunday. / Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
The government said Sunday it will send a third charter flight to evacuate the remaining Korean residents of the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan.
This time, their spouses and children who hold Chinese passports will be allowed to board the plane, as opposed to the previous two flights. Currently, there are over 200 Koreans and their family members in the capital of Hubei Province, which has been locked down since Jan. 23 due to the raging epidemic.
"The Chinese government recently notified us of its decision to allow Chinese family members of Korean nationals to travel to Korea on a government-chartered plane," Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo said in a briefing after a pan-government meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, at the Government Complex Seoul on responses to the virus outbreak.
"Because of this, the government has decided to send another plane for Korean citizens who originally chose to stay with their family members."
Park did not elaborate on a specific date, saying a plane will fly to Wuhan as soon as Seoul completes discussions over the evacuation plan with Beijing.
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told the briefing that about 100 people would come to Korea on the third chartered plane.
"We are conducting a survey of the Korean nationals, which will be completed by midnight," she said.
A government-chartered Korean Air flight flew to Wuhan twice late last month to retrieve a total of 701 citizens, but the Chinese government was reluctant to allow their family members with Chinese nationality to leave the city to avoid negative sentiment from people there over "preferential treatment." As a result, some Koreans chose to stay in Wuhan.
Recently there have been signs of the Chinese government easing its control on nationals leaving the country with their non-Chinese spouses.
On Friday, a fourth Japanese charter flight carried a total of 198 people from Hubei, 79 of whom were spouses who had passports issued in China and Taiwan, according to Japanese media outlets.
Where those evacuees will be housed after arrival has not been decided on, but officials gave assurances that they will be tightly quarantined for 14 days, the presumed incubation period for the virus, at government-run facilities located away from populated areas.
With the number of confirmed cases increasing in Korea as well as in other countries, there are growing public calls for the government to ban travelers from all parts of China from entering the country.
Currently, Korea has banned the entry of foreigners who have traveled to Hubei Province within the past 14 days, but the prime minister reiterated the stance that the government will consider additional bans on entrants from other Chinese cities "depending on how the situation develops."
The prime minister said ahead of the meeting the government will enhance its monitoring of foreigners coming from third countries as some Koreans have been infected with the disease in countries other than China.
The government will also maintain the infectious disease level at "orange" or the third-highest state of readiness in the four-tiered system. Chung said the government is, however, fully prepared for the epidemic.
"Considering the quarantine controls on all infected Korean patients, the nation's public health capabilities and the virus' low fatality rate here, we will remain at the same level," Chung said.
