Government Designates Monkeypox 'Quarantine Control Areas' in 27 Countries Including the UK and Spain

Top 5 Countries with Frequent Occurrences: Fever Threshold Changed from 37.5℃ to 37.3℃

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] Quarantine measures, including fever criteria, will be strengthened for countries with a high number of monkeypox cases.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced on the afternoon of the 22nd that it held the second half-year Quarantine Expert Committee meeting and designated quarantine management areas for infectious diseases including monkeypox.

The quarantine management areas for monkeypox are mostly European countries: the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Latvia, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Ghana, DR Congo, and Nigeria?a total of 27 countries.

Among these, for the top five countries with frequent monkeypox cases?United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Portugal, and France?the fever criterion will be lowered from 37.5℃ to 37.3℃ to strengthen quarantine measures.

In addition to monkeypox, the designated quarantine management infectious diseases include COVID-19 (worldwide), cholera (18 countries), plague (2 countries), yellow fever (43 countries), avian influenza human infections (9 regions within China), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS, 11 countries), Ebola virus disease, and polio (14 countries), totaling 9 diseases.

The designated quarantine management areas will be enforced for six months starting from the 1st of next month.

The designation of quarantine management areas is a system to respond to quarantine by assessing the risk level of each country for each infectious disease, considering the significant impact of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 imported from overseas to Korea. Every six months, the global outbreak trends are reviewed by disease type, and the designation is made after deliberation by the Quarantine Expert Committee.

For individuals entering from quarantine management areas, documents related to vaccination and testing may be requested in addition to the health status questionnaire at the quarantine stage. If necessary, departure or entry bans may also be requested.

Meanwhile, the KDCA explained that quarantine management areas for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and novel influenza were not separately designated as no overseas outbreak cases have been found within the past year.