An Indonesian sailor escaped a quarantine facility in South Korea by digging a hole under a wall before local police captured him three days later.
The foreign national, who entered the country on a ship crew visa, broke out of the facility in Seoul without being detected on Sunday night, according to a Reuters report citing South Korea’s state-run news agency Yonhap.
The unnamed seaman was just one day away from completing two weeks of mandatory quarantine when he escaped.
Local authorities arrested him on Wednesday, 70 miles from the capital in the city of Cheongju, the report added.
The sailor is thought to have attempted to remain illegally in South Korea, but reports did not say whether he had been charged for any related offences.
Son Yong-rae, spokesman for the country’s Ministry of Health and Welfare, was quoted as saying: “The person had tested negative for coronavirus and showed no symptoms during the isolation period.”
South Korea’s new coronavirus measures mandate that all inbound travelers must undergo 14 days of isolation regardless of whether they are displaying symptoms of COVID-19.
The regulation also applies to returning Korean citizens, who are required to observe the quarantine period in a facility designated by the government—at their own cost—if their own residence is deemed unsuitable.
On Wednesday, South Korea reported triple digit COVID-19 cases for the first time in six days, adding 114 cases, figures from the health ministry’s Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency showed.
Among them were 94 cases of local transmission and 20 imported cases, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed infections to 24,353, including 425 deaths, since January 3, 2020.
South Koreans have just finished observing the annual harvest festival known as Chuseok, which lasted five days until Sunday.
More than 27 million people were expected to travel during the holiday period, the state-funded Korea Transport Institute estimated, while the Korea Airports Corp. said nearly one million people would still fly despite government warnings.
