Since moving to South Korea in the summer of 2020, there’s been a mandatory quarantine. At first, it was a 14-day quarantine, which meant I stayed here for a year and a half to avoid the isolation. Then, in November 2021, the government dangled a carrot in front of us by saying that anyone fully vaccinated in Korea (which I am) can be exempt from the mandatory quarantine. There were still lots of hoops to jump through, but we were all excited and I booked my flights home for the holidays. Then, shortly before the Christmas holiday was set to begin, they reinstated the mandatory quarantine, only this time it was reduced to 10 days. While it was a pain (and a shit ton of money…3500 USD!) to change my flights, I was able to go home for about a week and a half. Sometime last month the quarantine was further reduced to 7 days, giving us a little more hope.
However, this afternoon, we received very good news in our inbox! The Korean government just released that they are ending the mandatory quarantine period for all fully vaccinated and boosted travelers (even if vaxxed outside of Korea, as long as you go through the process of registering your vaccination with their app). This goes into effect for people vaccinated in Korea on 21 March and for everyone else on 1 April.
While everyone’s pumped about the news, myself included, I can’t help but be skeptical about it. It’s like the boy who cried wolf…they told us once before and changed their mind, they can do it again. For now, I’m not booking any international flights, but it does give me hope for the summer break. I was planning on leaving anyway, but was concerned about the short break with having to factor in quarantine. If I can avoid it, I get more time with my family, which is what I want.
Fingers crossed that it sticks this time!
my heart is happiest when i travel. read. write. connect. 