COVID-19: Policy responsesSouth Korea’s Coronavirus Plan Is Working, Can the World Copy It?
To fight the COVID-19 epidemic, the South Korean government has taken drastic, even extreme, measures: Government health agencies send citizens phone alerts – at times, a dozen a day – about new infections in their neighborhoods; health officials conduct thousands of in-person interviews with those suspected of being infected; and the government has instant access to extensive amounts of personal information — such as bank records, phone GPS data, and surveillance footage — not only for confirmed coronavirus patients but also suspected cases. This access is possible because South Korean lawmakers loosened privacy laws following a 2015 outbreak of MERS. It is not clear that citizens in Western countries would be comfortable with this intrusive approach.
It was Thursday morning, and my phone buzzed with a text message from South Korea’s emergency alert system, as it has hundreds of times during the coronavirus outbreak.
Someone in my Seoul neighborhood — a 35-year-old Polish male — had tested positive. Clicking a link to a government website revealed an astonishing level of detail about the man’s activities over the previous two days.
After arriving at Seoul’s Incheon airport at about 9:00 a.m., the man took an express train to my local metro station, where, wearing a mask, he shopped at a nearby E-Mart grocery store. He then returned home, before getting dinner five hours later at an Italian restaurant in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood popular with foreigners. He was still wearing a mask, but took it off while eating, the message adds.
The next day, the man visited the ground floor of my local bank, ate dumplings at a restaurant down the street, visited a nearby animal hotel, and eventually wound up at my local hospital, where he became one of approximately 9,000 people in South Korea to test positive for the coronavirus.
By now, such messages are commonplace in South Korea, as is the ominous chorus of accompanying tones that can be heard at bus stops, offices, and other community settings. Some days, I receive over a dozen alerts about infections in my area. When I travel to other parts of Seoul, my phone vibrates with new reports about cases in those neighborhoods.
To compile those messages, South Korea relies not only on in-person interviews, but also instant access to extensive amounts of personal information — such as bank records, phone GPS data, and surveillance footage — not only for confirmed coronavirus patients but also suspected cases.
This access is possible because South Korean lawmakers loosened privacy laws following a 2015 outbreak of MERS, which resulted in 39 deaths here. Now, during dangerous epidemics, authorities have warrantless access to such private data.
The Plan Has Worked
As a result, South Korea has been able to locate coronavirus clusters, investigate the path of infection, quickly isolate those involved, and warn the public about trouble spots to avoid.
The result has been stunning: South Korea has reported one of the lowest coronavirus death rates in the world: as of Monday, only 111 people have died out of 8,961 cases.
