Page 27 - Smart public health emergency management and ICT implementations - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

were used by SMG to keep the public informed. These were the key for securing trust in the actions
taken by officials as they worked on helping to create a safe and secure environment.

Rapid intervention through early testing, often and safely as well as contact tracing, isolation and
surveillance became the basis for Covid-19 Smart Management System or Korean SMS. Each of
these actions relied on different modes of collaboration between different levels and agencies of
government, private organizations and the public. Supported by Korea’s smart city technology,
manual processes subsequently became digital. New methods and approaches were introduced
to confront the challenges posed by this virus. Collection of real-time data became the basis for a
“new digital surveillance system”. Following the first confirmed case in Seoul, a state of emergency
was declared, and an evolving strategy was devised both to contain the virus and protect the
economy and society. It included the early and widespread adoption of temporary testing sites,
such as the drive-through, the testing booth and the use of diagnostic test kits that produced
quick results. This enabled moving more quickly to tracing and detecting infection hotspots, and
equally swift in alerting the public both through the various government websites and phone
applications. Tracing and tracking in particular relied largely on data already collected from phone
records, credit card transactions and CCTV sources. This data was repurposed for use during the
coronavirus pandemic by government and the general public, as mandated by the 2013 Act on
Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data. Seoul citizens have played an instrumental
role in designing apps (Corona Map, Corona 100, Self-diagnosis and Mask Apps ), which have
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enabled real-time tracking of the virus by creating maps of hotpots with regular updates of the
number of infected, quarantined and expired. Despite the fact that Korea has a universal health
care system with high hospital bed capacity, the government stepped in to quickly control the
situation to avoid putting pressure on the hospitals and established a patient management system
based on triage in line with a dual-approach system to treatment (C40) . The nature and severity
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of the symptoms determined whether the patients were sent to a secure emergency centre or to
a temporary treatment public facility. In either case, patients were supported by state-of-the art
treatment technology and monitoring Apps using artificial intelligence services.

Seoul’s smart city vision focus on smart infrastructure has always been geared towards the application
of the latest technologies, both to develop an innovative economy centred on improving people’s
well-being and to address rising challenges. It is supported by public-private-partnerships (PPPs), a
world class health care system coupled with trusted government-citizen relationship, which are all
key components to understanding the forces shaping the South Korean Covid-19 countermeasures.

5.2 Fighting the Covid-19 health care challenge leveraging technology - Arogya Setu
App

The Covid-19 pandemic is posing a major challenge to a large number of countries in managing
their health care infrastructure to save lives. Efforts are on to leverage technology to effectively
fight this pandemic. A number of Apps from different countries are in place:

1. TraceTogether from Singapore
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