Travel Advisories Expand Across World

Japan on Monday imposed tougher quarantine on travelers from the U.S. as the coronavirus epidemic spreads quickly there.

All visitors from the U.S. must quarantine themselves for 14 days after arrival. Visitors from China and Korea are already under the same restrictions.

But Korea is still accepting most travelers arriving from overseas, although it has toughened screening. A senior Foreign Ministry official here told reporters Monday, "We have not made any decisions yet about restrictions on visitors from the U.S."

Government officials here favor toughened regulations rather than an outright ban because that would be unfair when they did not even ban Chinese visitors during the early stage of the outbreak.

Instead, the government is trying to dissuade Koreans from visiting the U.S. The ministry issued a travel advisory urging people to postpone or cancel their travel plans.

The global trend is to prohibit travel to and entry from the hardest-hit regions. According to the ministry, 136 countries have closed their borders to visitors from Korea so far.