On February 23, 2021, South Korea announced an amendment to the “List of internationally evaluated biocidal active substances”, a series of substances to be approved through a simplified process with exempted data requirements. Compare to the substances disclosed in September 2020, the total number of active substances increased from 115 to 130 and 24 substances have been excluded due to the absence of evaluation report issued by the US or EU authorities or voluntarily withdrawn/absence of application plan for substance approval.

On December 31, 2020, the Chinese National Health Commission（NHC） issue an announcement regarding the hygiene and safety evaluation of low-temperature use disinfectants, aimed to address the continuous covid-19 contamination detected in cold-chain items and scattered cases reported as temperatures decrease. The low-temperature use disinfectants are now specified with definite efficacy and stability test conditions distinct from normal use disinfectants.

On November 11, 2020, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the State Standardization Administration jointly issue the national standard,” GB38598-2020 General Requirement for Label and Instruction Book of Disinfection Products”, which will be mandatorily implemented starting from December 1, 2021.

Disinfection products refer to a sort of disease-preventing products that eliminate pathogenic microorganisms and block the transmission through chemical, physical and biological methods. The Chinese “Measures for the Control of Disinfection” classifies disinfection products into disinfectant, disinfecting apparatus and sanitary products.

On August 4, 2020, the General Office of the National Health Commission released the final notice regarding the enhanced regulation of disinfection products during the Covid-19 control, which was consulted early on June 19. Apart from the aims of resuming normal record-filing management of non-new disinfectants and ensure the safety and effectiveness of disinfection products produced in China and intensifying the ex-post surveillance of disinfection products already been placed on the market, the emergently placed disinfectants will have a longer transitional period to complete the normal record-filing procedures until December 31, 2020.

On June 19, 2020, The Vietnamese Ministry of Health promulgated Circular 11/2020/TT-BYT, aimed to renew the list of active ingredients prohibited or restricted from uses in household insecticides and disinfectants.  A total of 10 active ingredients were added into the prohibited list, namely Chlorpyrifos ethyl, Hexythiazox, Fipronil, Beta-cyfluthrin, Cyfluthrin, Trichlorfon, Diazinon, Acephate, Malathion and Methanol.

On June 19, 2020, the General Office of the National Health Commission opened a 30-day consultation on a notice concerning the enhanced regulation of disinfection products during the Covid-19 control, aimed to resume the normal record-filing management of non-new disinfectants and ensure the safety and effectiveness of disinfection products produced in China, as well as intensify the ex-post surveillance of disinfection products already been placed on the market.