세계적 과학저널 사이언스, 코로나 방지 대책으로 한국식 자가격리 앱 주목
Swift action and free or affordable mass-testing have been South Korea's most effective weapons in countering the coronavirus. But, it's not just that.
When it comes to the novel coronavirus, South Korea has taken tracing and keeping track of those in self-quarantine to a new level using smartphone applications.
Our Jang Tae-hyun reports other countries are looking to adopt and adapt.
This smartphone application tracks people who are under quarantine.
If the person leaves a designated area, the app alerts the civil servant assigned to them.
"Previously, one civil servant could only manage one quarantined person at a time, but with this application, each worker can manage between 10 and 30 people."
It usually takes around a week to fully track people who have been in contact with the infected and test them for COVID-19, but the use of smartphone apps can speed up this process.
Researchers from Oxford University said the application can reduce the average rate of transmission to less than one person per case.
Using apps to track the coronavirus is a sensitive privacy issue in Europe, but this is now starting to change.
French health minister Olivier Veran has announced that France is working on a smartphone application dubbed 'Stop Covid' to slow the spread of the virus.
However, privacy concerns still remain... and it's not clear whether France will centralize the use of that app or not.
Jang Tae-hyun, Arirang News
