Why is the Korean government not recognizing vaccinations received abroad?

As the phased recovery of daily life was implemented, foreign media attention was focused on how to apply the 'Quarantine Pass' (inoculation certificate, negative confirmation system), but the government responded that it would review it later.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a ‘foreign policy discussion on Korea’s response to COVID-19’ for foreign journalists at the Seoul Press Center on the afternoon of November 17th.

At the discussion meeting, the main questions were about Korea's step-by-step recovery and quarantine pass implementation plan, as well as questions related to the vaccination certificate of foreigners who entered the country after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine from abroad.

Son Yeong-rae, head of the Central Accident Resolving Headquarters of the Ministry of Welfare, said, "In response to a Danish reporter's question about the timing and standards for Korea's gradual cessation of normal recovery, he said, "We see as an important point whether (the current situation) exceeds the usable range of the medical system." If there is a situation where proper treatment is not possible while going beyond this, we will suspend the normal recovery process and take emergency measures.”

Director Sohn said, "Korea's quarantine pass is operated quite narrowly and limitedly compared to foreign vaccine passes." We are applying the quarantine pass only to facilities where there have been many outbreaks,” he said.

He said, “If you look at all multi-use facilities, only 15% of facilities that are subject to the quarantine pass do not have a quarantine pass for the remaining 85%. We only limited the size of the meeting and excluded the quarantine pass,” he explained.

In addition, some foreign correspondents asked what to do about the fact that the vaccination was completed overseas, but Korea did not recognize it.

Director Sohn said, “There are places that have standard certificates recognized by the country in each country, but there are places that accept forms issued by local governments or medical institutions, so it is difficult to accurately verify the vaccine certificate.” We are discussing a system for mutual recognition, and we will devise a plan to apply the same incentives to Koreans with only their country’s vaccination certificate system without a separate prior application.”

Reporter Song Haseong