South Korea defends its China travel restrictions with shocking Covid statistics.

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On Tuesday, South Korea responded to allegations that its rules regarding Chinese travellers’ compliance with the Covid are “discriminatory.” The country stated that more than half of its imported cases are coming from China.

According to Seung-ho Choi, a deputy director at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, up to 80% of “imported confirmed cases” in South Korea are coming from China. He made this statement in response to CNBC.

According to Choi, between the months of November and December, there was a 14-fold increase in the number of people travelling from China who tested positive for Covid-19.

In addition to this, Choi stated that the company’s policies apply to “all Korean nationals and non-Korean nationals coming from China.” People of other ethnicities are included in this as well. This measure does not include any provisions that are discriminatory based on a person’s nationality.

Choi stated that South Korea could be at risk if there was an increase in infections in China because of the country’s proximity to South Korea.

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“The situation with COVID-19 in China is still getting worse As a result, it is now theoretically possible to identify previously unknown variants,” he explained.

The omicron variant became widespread in China in December, not long after the Chinese government loosened some of the restrictions on contact tracing that had been in place for nearly three years and had forced many people to remain close to their homes. Beijing’s international border controls have been officially loosened as of January 8, allowing for an increase in the number of people entering and exiting the country.

S. Korea 🇰🇷 COVID-19 current stats for Tue Jan 10 2023

Cases: 29,599,747
Deaths: 32,669
Recovered: 28,501,933
Active: 1,065,145
Tests: 15,804,065
Doses: 129,647,782#covid_krhttps://t.co/fIiuKwQctK pic.twitter.com/zGoergDtDA

— Covid Stats (@corona19_stats) January 10, 2023

Dr. Chris Murray, the director of a health research centre at the University of Washington in Seattle, told CNBC in late December that it is unlikely that a dangerous new Covid variant is spreading in China. Dr. Murray is based in Seattle.