S. KOREA CONFIRMS 1 MORE OMICRON CASE

[Anchor Lead]

One more case of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in Korea. It's the teenage son of the couple that was confirmed to have the variant first. In the next two weeks, all international arrivals will be required to quarantine to contain the spread of the Omicron variant in the country.

[Pkg]

A teenager from Incheon became the sixth Omicron variant patient in South Korea. He is the son of the couple that was confirmed to have the virus first after visiting Nigeria last month. So far six cases of the new variant have been detected in the country: the couple in their 40s who visited Nigeria, their son, one of their acquaintances, and two women in their 50s who also traveled to Nigeria. There is no information about the teen's health condition, but the other five are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.

[Soundbite] Park Young-joon(Central Disease Control HQs) : "Most of the infected do not have any peculiar symptoms different from typical COVID-19 symptoms. None of the infected have developed severe symptoms."

With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly across all continents, all international arrivals will be subject to stringent quarantine inspections. From Friday, travelers arriving in Korea will be required to be quarantined for ten days regardless of vaccination. Exceptions apply to travelers from Singapore and Saipan, which have quarantine exemption agreements with Seoul. Quarantine exemptions will only be permitted in exceptional cases such as funerals. All international arrivals confirmed to have contracted Covid-19 must receive genomic sequencing to find out if they are infected with the Omicron variant.

[Soundbite] Jeong Eun-kyeong(Director, KDCA) : "More stringent measures will be enforced in the next 2 weeks until we learn more about the new variant. We will monitor the situation in the next 2 weeks before taking measures in accordance with the new variant's risk level."

Even fully vaccinated people must self-quarantine for two weeks if they have had close personal contact with those infected with the Omicron variant. Those who are confirmed or suspected to have the new variant will be hospitalized.