Searching for Digital Technologies in Containment and Mitigation Strategies: Experience from South Korea COVID-19

Abstract

Background: Korea has achieved health policy objectives in pandemic management so far, namely minimizing mortality, flattening the epidemic curve, and limiting the socio-economic burden of its measures. The key to the Korean government’s success in combating COVID-19 lies with the latest digital technologies (DTs). The prompt and effective application of DTs facilitates both containment as well as mitigation strategies and their sub-policy measures. Methods: This article uses an experiential analysis based on an exploratory case study – analysis on field applications of the government’s interventions. Information is collected by qualitative methods such as literature analysis, meeting materials, and a review of various government reports (including internal ones) along with academic and professional experiences of the authors. Findings: The article presents the unique Korean health policy approaches in the COVID-19 crisis. First, DTs allow the Korean government to embrace various policy measures together listed in containment strategy, namely altering and warning, epidemiological investigation, quarantine of contacts, case-finding, social distancing, and mask-wearing. Second, DTs allow Korea to integrate containment and mitigation strategies simultaneously. Along with the above measures in containment, healthcare service, medical treatment, and prophylaxis (presymptomatic testing) within mitigation are utilized to prevent a COVID-19 spread. Conclusions: Korea develops DTs in an integrated manner in the early pandemic stage under strong and coordinated government leadership. Above all, the DTs’ functions in each pandemic developmental stage are continuously upgraded. Instead of prioritizing policy measures or strategies, therefore, Korea can implement diverse policies simultaneously by integrating DTs effectively. During the COVID-19 outbreak, DTs work as the enablers to connect these two strategies and their measures in Korea. Recommendations: DTs should be at the center of the disaster management paradigm, especially during a pandemic. DTs are facilitators and integrators of containing and mitigating strategies and their policy measures.

A critical juncture in universal healthcare: insights from South Korea’s COVID-19 experience for the United Kingdom to consider

“…In a pandemic situation, all clinical radiologists and nurses have to wear personal protective gear. For example, during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in 2015, Korea learned to be wary of in-hospital infections (Heo et al, 2020). Learning lessons from these previous outbreaks, during the COVID-19 crisis, Korean hospitals have been separating treatment processes for respiratory patients from those of non-respiratory patients to minimize virus transmission.…”

“…Such actors in such circumstances tend to pull together and work harder. Therefore, internal competition's advantages may enable direct but flexible government action with respect to health and medical measures at the early stage of an infectious disease's development, including early case-finding, quarantining of contacts, testing, epidemical investigation, and border control (Heo et al, 2020). In that sense, internal competition is essential to delivering a better response to a pandemic as long as it is kept under control by a reliable authority such as a government.…”

“…To tackle COVID-19, many governments have designed and implemented a wide range of policy measures. In particular, the universal healthcare system of Korea has received wide recognition for its success in flattening the curve of confirmed COVID-19 cases (Majeed et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2020;Heo et al, 2020;Park et al, 2020;Shim et al, 2020). The purpose of this comparative research is to analyze how two public healthcare systems (those of Korea and the UK) have reacted to COVID-19.…”

COVID19-Routes: A Safe Pedestrian Navigation Service

“…As a result of the integration of technology into the management and decision-making processes of the pandemic, government teams are seeing their work greatly facilitated by solutions based on the Smart City [12], [13], the Internet of Things (IoT) [14] or the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) [15]. A clear example of the advantages that the integration of technological solutions can bring to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic is the case of South Korea, where it has been possible to bend the curve in the earliest phase of the virus [16], [17].…”

Addressing Healthcare Gaps in Sweden during the COVID-19 Outbreak: On Community Outreach and Empowering Ethnic Minority Groups in a Digitalized Context

“…Without a well-thought-out policy response, respecting principles of solidarity, human rights, and equity, the post-COVID world could see inequalities worsening further [ 40 ]. Digital approaches have demonstrated, e.g., in South Korea [ 41 ], usefulness and reactivity in facing the immense challenges throughout the COVID-19 crisis. However, this challenging time demands further urgent needs to make meaningful practice implementations to address disparities in health and healthcare.…”