The government has decided to lift the mandatory Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for entrants from China from March 1.

Quarantine officials also stressed that it will drop the measure that made flights from China only arrive at Incheon Airport in March as well.

"The domestic Covid-19 situation is stable, and the positive rate of arrivals from China had also fallen to 0.6 percent as of the third week of February," Kim Sung-ho, head of the interior ministry's disaster management office, said. "Therefore, the government judged that further easing quarantine measures is possible."

However, Kim stressed that the mandatory pre-entry inspection and Q-code input will be extended until March 10 to confirm the impact of easing entrant requirements and discuss ending the measures later. 

The government's announcement follows Korea’s mandatory PCR testing for people entering Korea from China and the suspension of short-term visa issuance for Chinese nationals from Jan. 2. 

Also, Korea required entrants from China to submit a negative confirmation letter before entering the country from Jan. 5. The quarantine authorities also decided to apply mandatory inspection before and after entry into Korea and unified all planes leaving from China to arrive at Incheon International Airport.

However, Seoul said it would increase flights from China from 62 per week to 80 per week by the end of February, and to 100 per week from March.

The government's easing of entry regulation for entrants from China comes at a time when concerns about the re-proliferation of Covid-19 in China are growing as the number of new Covid-19 infections and fever patients, which had been stagnant for some time, is increasing again.

According to data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of new Covid-19 infections per day, which had been below 10,000 at the beginning of this month, returned to an upward trend and recorded 10,720 last Thursday.

The Chinese CDC stressed that although new infections have decreased significantly, caution is needed as more than 5,000 new cases are confirmed daily.

In addition to the re-proliferation concerns, the Chinese CDC also said it has recently confirmed the nation's first XBB.1.5 infection, an Omicron subvariant with excellent immune evasion ability.