S.Korea nods no pre-arrival Covid test for Chinese from Sat

Mar 08, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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From Saturday (March 11) travellers to South Korea via either mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau will no longer need to be tested for Covid-19 infection prior to setting off on their journey there, authorities in South Korea have confirmed.

“The Covid-19 situation in China has continued to remain stable since the Chinese New Year holidays,” said Lim Sook-young, director of the infectious disease crisis response bureau at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as reported by news outlet Korea JoonAng Daily. “And there have been no new variants of concern,” added the official.

It had been flagged last month – at the time South Korea said it was ending post-arrival testing for that cohort of travellers – that pre-arrival testing would not run beyond March 10.

In pre-pandemic trading, Chinese had been an important element in the earnings of a number of foreigner-only casinos operated in South Korea, according to information provided by the venues’ controlling companies.

South Korea has 17 casinos, but only one of them – Kangwon Land – is permitted to offer gambling to locals.

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