The international flight ban has been lifted for citizens traveling to South Korea and Japan for work. U Peter Nyan Maung, vice president of the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation, told The Myanmar Times that the decision was based on those country’s containment of their own COVID-19 pandemics. Although it is up to those countries whether or not to accept migrant workers, he said that South Korea has already begun allowing entry to select candidates. Although Peter Nyan Maung said Japan has not been as forthcoming, the country has already granted work visas to around 3000 Myanmar citizens. However, work agencies will need to arrange COVID-19 tests at the price of MMK 200,000 each, he told the Myanmar Times.

This approved immigration does not indicate a resumption of ordinary, scheduled international flights. Transport for migrant workers to Japan and South Korea will be rolled into the ongoing international relief flights for citizens who have urgent business abroad, and will take second priority to those traveling for medical reasons, the Myanmar Times report continued. Thus, the country remains closed to international tourism and re-entry by most would-be permanent expats. The government has discussed the prospect of a phased re-opening of tourism that would involve partnerships with countries that have managed to more or less contain the spread of the coronavirus within their borders, such as Japan and South Korea.

These partnerships, of course, would also depend on Myanmar’s ability to quell its own outbreak. Myanmar’s COVID-19 testing capacity is relatively limited, and the virus could possibly fester within poor and rural communities, flying under the radar of the Ministry of Health and Sports. But at least officially, Myanmar seems to have been relatively successful, with around 360 total confirmed cases, and no new local transmissions for nearly a month.