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| Quarantine officials prepares to move sailors on a Russian refrigeration ship at Gamcheon Port in Busan, Tuesday. /Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
The health authorities are on high alert after a large number of Russian sailors in a vessel docked in Busan tested positive for COVID-19, Tuesday, while the local spread of the coronavirus pandemic appeared to be slowing down.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 46 new infections, Monday, bringing the nation's total to 12,484. In addition, one more death was announced, raising this total to 281.
Among the 46, 30 were imported cases, 16 of which were on a Russia-flagged refrigeration vessel with 21 crew members. The ship departed from Russia's Vladivostok and arrived at Busan, Friday. The sailors did not disembark, but many local dockworkers had contact with them on the ship, raising concern over a possible infection cluster.
Sixteen out of 21 sailors who have been isolated on the ship were tested Monday after the captain who had disembarked in Russia a week ago tested positive. Around 160 dockworkers who came into contact with the infected sailors are also now in quarantine, the KCDC said.
The number of imported cases has been on a sharp rise recently, reaching 30 per day twice this month. The KCDC has reported a total of 1,471 such cases as of Monday since the first infection in January. This is also the first time in nearly 40 days that the number of imported cases has surpassed that of local infections.
Moreover, as members of the Busan Port Workers' Union were found to have boarded the vessel for loading and unloading without knowing that there was a confirmed patient, calls are growing for urgent quarantine measures at the port.
Imported cases once fell to single-digits early this month after the country strengthened quarantine measures on all international arrivals in April. But such cases have bounced back to double-digits since mid-June. In an effort to contain the rise of imported cases, the health authorities began to suspend visa issuance and non-scheduled flights to restrict entry from Pakistan and Bangladesh, Tuesday, as COVID-19 cases imported from the two nations have recently spiked.
Health authorities said the country is standing at a "critical crossroads" as to whether it suffers from another wave of the virus.
"Considering the trend of the virus spreading around the world, the growth rate, which had slowed, has been rapidly bouncing back. We all need to be patient and vigilant in practicing quarantine rules in our daily lives," KCDC Deputy Director Kwon Joon-wook said in a briefing at the Government Complex in Sejong.
Kwon said community infections remain the main challenge for the health authorities as infection clusters in the Seoul metropolitan area and outside the capital have continued to grow. Of the locally transmitted cases, six were detected in Seoul and four in Gyeonggi Province. Four were residents in Daejeon, while Daegu and Incheon reported one each respectively.
Meanwhile, the total number of people released from quarantine after making a full recovery stood at 10,908, up 27 from the previous day.
