Private-sector responses to COVID-19

Based on the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, private sector companies have developed real-time dashboards and mobile apps to further increase public awareness and effectively disseminate disease information. Such technologies (e.g. Corona Map, Corona NOW) allow people to visualize data on confirmed coronavirus patients, along with the patient's nationality, gender, age, which places the patient has visited, and how close citizens are to these coronavirus patients.

Mobile carrier companies are also exchanging mobile data with the government to monitor the movement paths of patients with COVID-19 as per the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. An example of private sector efforts, particularly to use mobile big data to prevent global epidemic diseases, include KT’s Global Epidemic Prevention Platform (adopted as Safiri Smart in Kenya) that sends warning messages to people who visit disaster-prone areas; enables the public to make real-time reports to health offices; and enables the government to collect and monitor data on health crises.

In addition to prevention and monitoring, private sector companies are utilizing digital technology including Artificial Intelligence to facilitate fast-track yet accurate screening and diagnosis of COVID-19 patients, with AI-driven X-ray and CT image screening solutions. (For more details on the examples of private sector utilizing ICT, please refer to the report by the National Information Society Agency of Korea.)

With the sporadic recurrence of sharp increases in the number of confirmed cases, blended formats of online and offline learning has become the new normal, coordinated by the Ministry of Education. Online learning platforms are being used to substitute regular courses and to send out announcements to parents and students. (e.g. CLASSUM, Classting, other global video conferencing platforms)