[Anchor]
COVID-19 can still spread despite having light or no symptoms.
To prevent secondary infection, it is pivotal to immediately identify the people who were in contact.
The science community has suggested an app that can digitally track infected individuals as a preventative measure.
We will now have Reporter Lee Seong-gyu.
[Reporter]
This is an app that shows the location of quarantined individuals in real time.
An alarm will go off if the individual leaves his spot of isolation, and is reported to the appropriate authorities.
[Park Jong-hyeon / Head Officer of Safety and Communications, Ministry of the Interior and Safety : Without this app, civil servants would have to check on each individual. However, tracking 10 to 30 people per employee is possible with this app.]
Korea's use of an app to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has been a topic of discussion in a global scientific journal, Science.
Science stated that locating infections through epidemiological surveys normally takes about a week.
Because of this, using an app to track infected individuals and their locations was suggested by the publication.
They also stated that studies show if action is taken immediately after an infected person is found through the app, it can reduce the reproduction rate of the virus to below one person.
With vaccines not being able to be created within a short time span, this implies that an app like this is crucial in this situation.
[Son Woo-sik / Team Director of Infectious Disease Research, National Institute for Mathematical Sciences : Science stated that noting down contact with others on an app can be faster than using epidemiological surveys to find infected individuals and help stop the spread of COVID-19.]
Most European countries, including Germany, viewed the use of an app to be an invasion of privacy and reacted indifferently to the idea.
But with the quick spread of COVID-19 becoming uncontrollable, they are now introducing Korea's method of tracking individuals through smartphone apps.
This has been Lee Seong-gyu of YTN Science.
#COVID19 #COVID19news #korea
