Foreign diplomats to visit Incheon airport for first-hand look at S. Korea's quarantine efforts

About 20 foreign diplomats will visit Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, this week to take a first-hand look at South Korea's all-out efforts to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, officials said Thursday.

Friday's visit comes against a backdrop of more than 120 countries imposing entry bans or stricter quarantine measures for visitors travelling from South Korea, which has so far reported 7,869 confirmed cases with 66 deaths.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha proposed the visit during last week's briefing for the diplomats, urging their countries to trust Seoul's efforts to curb the country's COVID-19 outbreak and to refrain from imposing excessively restrictive measures against Korean travelers.

At Terminal 1 of the airport, the diplomats will be briefed on the strengthened quarantine procedures and watch multiple fever checks on outbound passengers.

They will also look at "special entry procedures" that require passengers arriving from China and Japan to undergo temperature checks and provide health documentation.

US Ambassador Harry Harris visited the airport on Wednesday to inspect fever checks on passengers heading to the United States.

He lauded the process as an "exemplar around the world."

Seoul has recently been intensifying publicity efforts to highlight its systematic quarantine procedures to prevent the movement of the virus both at home and abroad through various measures, including thorough fever checks on inbound and outbound passengers and action to hinder local community spread. (Yonhap)