Annie, a Hong Kong student in South Korea, decided to take a semester off because she was quarantined after returning to school, during the outbreak of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Annie was about to leave her hometown of Hong Kong to return to South Korea for the new semester this spring when she received a university notice asking her to quarantine 14 days in her dorm room when returning to school. . The short journey from Incheon International Airport to her school in western Seoul was not easy, as taxi drivers sought to alienate passengers believed to be from mainland China, where an outbreak of the disease.

"I was rejected by a taxi driver twice after they asked me where I came from," the 19-year-old student, who is attending sophomore year at Yonsei University, said via video from her dorm room, where she was separated. glass. "It was obviously uncomfortable, but I knew they wanted to be safe, they were scared so I didn't mind."

South Korea is also grappling with an outbreak of Covid-19, when more than 3,500 cases and 17 deaths have occurred. Most cases in South Korea have been linked to the Tan Thien Dia denominational church in Daegu city.

However, the arrival of about 70,000 Chinese students in the upcoming semester has raised concerns about a greater risk of nCoV infection, prompting more than 760,000 Koreans to sign petitions calling for the government to ban citizens. Chinese entry. South Korea has so far restricted entry to Chinese nationals from the Hubei epidemic center.

Annie said she was given a mask and thermometer to check her body temperature every day before reporting it to the security staff there. In the video, she shows a small room with bunk beds, tables and chairs for 4 people. When she opened the door, lunch was set outside, consisting of a sandwich, an orange, a bag of nuts, a bottle of fruit juice and mineral water. The school also provides basic supplies, including toilet items.

Yonsei University said the self-quarantine policy in accordance with government guidelines applies to international students from several countries where nCoV-infected people have appeared, including Japan, Vietnam and Thailand.

After being separated, the feeling of isolation and being discriminated against with the unclear schedule made Annie decide to take a semester off and return to Hong Kong. "I feel that if we stay here for four more months, such problems will occur every day because it happened the first hour I arrived," she said, referring to the taxi driver avoiding some passengers. "Things are changing every day, but we can't really blame anyone for that."

The Covid-19 outbreak began in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in China in December, and has now appeared in 64 countries and territories. The epidemic has infected more than 86,000 people, nearly 3,000 died worldwide. South Korea is currently the second largest outbreak in the world, just behind mainland China.