Korea to end routine ship quarantine checks for crew changes to speed port entry
Quarantine officers will no longer board ships arriving in Korea simply because a crew change took place in a disease-risk area after revisions go into effect on Oct. 1 that are expected to speed port entry for about 10,000 vessels a year. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) promulgated amended enforcement rules under ...
As of October 1, Korea will no longer conduct routine ship quarantine checks for crew changes in disease-risk areas, aiming to speed up port entry for about 10,000 vessels annually. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has revised the Quarantine Act, shifting ship sanitation procedures to a risk-based system and aligning them with World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
Officers will now focus onboard inspections on vessels with a higher risk of disease transmission, such as those reporting a quarantinable infectious disease, disease vectors, or lacking a valid ship sanitation certificate. Routine crew changes in quarantine management areas previously accounted for 57.6% of onboard inspections at sea, with no suspected cases of quarantinable infectious diseases identified.
The KDCA anticipates that reducing routine boardings will lower the risk of accidents. Ships will still undergo electronic document screening, and officers may perform on-site health and sanitation checks if documents require verification or if a vessel's condition raises concerns. Starting late this year, the KDCA will randomly select some arriving ships for onboard inspections to prevent gaps as more checks shift to paperwork.
Additionally, the fee for a ship sanitation certificate, which has remained unchanged for 16 years, will increase to between 60,000 won and 300,000 won ($40 to $220) starting October 1. The KDCA divided the fee scale into six gross-tonnage bands instead of five after consulting the shipping industry.
Written by urgent.news from Hellenic Shipping News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.