Page 26 - Smart public health emergency management and ICT implementations - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

literacy ”, overlapping with the recommendations which had resulted from the MERS investigation
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into the response of the Korean government to that epidemic.

‘Flattening the curve’: 24-hour emergency citizen prevention system

Preparedness for this current health crisis began in South Korea prior to the identification of the
first case on 20 January 2020. In fact, it started as soon as the MERS epidemic was declared over
in 2015, and an investigation into the government’s handling of the outbreak was launched. Much
emphasis was placed on inter-organizational cooperation and risk communication. These two
aspects facilitated a swift and transparent response during the current pandemic through the
sharing of both general and targeted real-time information delivered by all three governments –
central, metropolitan and local – using smartphone apps as well as websites of governments and
ICT companies (WISEnut).

Social distancing and hygiene guidelines backed by real-time information along with rapid
intervention through testing, tracing and treating formed the basis for an evolving 24-hour
emergency citizen infection prevention system. A few days after the Chinese government reported
the coronavirus cluster in Wuhan on 31 December 2019, the central government responded via the
Korean Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) while the SMG relied on its Disaster and
Safety Countermeasures Headquarters. They enacted the four-tiered national crisis management
system and launched a public hygiene campaign and social distancing guidelines. Operating
almost in unison, they raised the alert level to blue (level 1), publishing cautionary measures to
individuals travelling to Korea from China and vice versa. This, however, started to change fast
when the first case was confirmed on 20 January, raising the alert to yellow (level 2) and moving to
preventative measures, especially recommending behavioural guidelines on public transit. As fears
of the virus spreading became real and the WHO declared Covid-19 a global pandemic at the end
of January, the alert level was lifted further to orange (level 3). Fourteen-day strict social distancing
was enforced, restricting movement and use of public spaces, and issuing recommendations for
businesses on how to transform the work environment. Meanwhile, a special facility was allocated
for quarantining infected individuals and those exposed to them. The city carried out disinfection
of facilities, including bus-stops (4,081 in total) and bus interiors, designating them as “clean zones”.
All these measures were plotted on the smart map of Seoul, which citizens could access on their
smart devices to learn about their neighbourhoods, medical facilities, etc. and to create individual
maps. All foreign travellers who had been to China, especially to Hubei Province, were banned from
entering Korea. Social distancing measures and hygiene guidelines kept pace with the evolving
situation. The death of a local, coupled with a jump in the number of confirmed infections, which
reached triple digits exactly a month after the first case was confirmed, raised fears of loss of control
among government officials, who responded by raising the crisis alert level to red (dangerous –
level 4). The SMG restricted gatherings by shutting off all public facilities, followed by a campaign
of social distancing in which citizens were asked “to take a break from social life”. It created a
dashboard including daily updates, a timeline of events and countermeasures, presented through
a visual platform for Seoul citizens to quickly track a fast-moving situation. Various media outlets

16 U4SSC: Smart public health emergency management and ICT implementations