700 Korean evacuees to be released from two-week quarantine

SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- Seven hundred South Koreans repatriated from a Chinese city at the center of the new coronavirus outbreak are set to be released from quarantine in two provincial towns on Saturday and Sunday.

They have stayed in isolation at two state-run facilities in Asan and Jincheon, both about 90 kilometers south of Seoul, for more than two weeks, the estimated incubation period of COVID-19.

They were declared free of the virus in the final test on Thursday and permitted to go home, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The do not require follow-up medical checks after discharge, the ministry said.

The Asan compound has accommodated 527 people, with 173 in Jincheon.

On Saturday, a total of 366 evacuees who arrived from the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Jan. 31 -- 193 in Asan and 173 in Jincheon -- will be freed.

The following day, the Asan facility will free 333 people who arrived on Feb. 1 and a non-evacuee who has been there to take care of his two children.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and Interior and Safety Minister Chin Young plan to attend farewell ceremonies there.

The government will mobilize 37 buses to transport them to major locations near their homes, officials said.

The ministry added that 111 civil servants, who supported them at the facilities, will also be released on Sunday and Monday after completing disinfection and waste disposal.

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