Korea's ICT, AI, biotech shine in virus crisis

A worshiper enters the Central Church for Korean Evangelical Holiness in Seoul, June 2, scanning a one-time QR code on her smartphone after the government implemented a mandatory digital entry log system at densely populated facilities to better track and contain any COVID-19 infections. / Yonhap

This is the third in a five-part series on Korea's response to COVID-19, produced in collaboration with the Korea Foundation ― ED.

By Baek Byung-yeul

It has been almost six months since Korea reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19. With almost every country and territory worldwide experiencing confirmed coronavirus cases, Korea's response to the pandemic has stood out as the country succeeded in curbing the pandemic quickly without implementing mandatory lockdown measures or closing down the economy.

Korea's mass virus testing capability has contributed to better quarantine procedures and helped to mitigate the further spread of the coronavirus. The country also launched a state-of-the-art tracking system to swiftly trace the movements of infected people and those who had come into contact with them.

Analysts said the country's agile and aggressive response to contain the outbreak was possible thanks to its innovative information and communications (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and biotechnology.

Haksoo Ko, a professor of the School of Law at Seoul National University, said the country learned lessons from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) crisis in 2015.

At that time, Korea reported 186 MERS cases and had 38 deaths with a fatality rate of 20 percent. After the crisis, the government decided to set up a center fully dedicated to handling laboratory control of infectious diseases to better analyze pathogens and develop diagnostic reagents.

Thanks to this, Korea's mortality rate for the coronavirus is around 2.2 percent, below the worldwide average which stood at 4.4 percent as of July 12.

"The 2015 MERS crisis advanced the country's Infectious Diseases Control and Prevention Act. The government amended the law, enabling the health authorities to track the movements of infected people," professor Ko said.

Ko added that in addition to this, Korea's fast response — well ahead of other countries facing the outbreak — was the result of the country's advanced ICT capability.

"Combining the country's ICT capability and revised diseases control act, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) was able to receive data from various agencies as telecom operators provided location information, the police gave CCTV footage, credit card firms offered transaction detail, and hospitals provided information of confirmed cases," Ko said.

As part of the government's efforts to continue to contain the spread of the virus without imposing a nationwide lockdown, Korea recently introduced a QR code-based entry log system.

The digital entry registers are required for people visiting densely populated facilities such as nightclubs, eateries, cinemas, cram schools and churches.

The digital entry log is stored at the Social Security Intelligence Service (SSiS). If a mass infection occurs at one of these facilities, the KCDC officials can request the SSiS to provide the records and use the information to track visitors to the facility.

Employees of local medical diagnostic company Boditech Med work on a COVID-19 diagnostic test kits production line in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, April 7. / Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

AI technology also helped the country to curb the pandemic in Korea.

Having a sufficient number of COVID-19 test kits is a top priority as it is important to conduct early diagnosis on as many people as possible to control the virus spread. Korea's biotechnology companies could release test kits rapidly thanks to AI technology.

Seegene, a local biotechnology company, released its test kits just three weeks after it started to develop them as the company used AI technology to quickly analyze a vast amount of virus data and classifications of patients.

Given that it usually takes two to three months to develop a diagnosis test kit for a disease, AI technology helped the company speed up development. "Using its exclusive AI-based assay design platform, Seegene was able to rapidly develop the assay shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak started in China," the company said in a statement.

‘Pandemic advances Personal Data Protection Act'

Despite that Korea being praised for its tracking system and the people's voluntary participation in virus protection measures such as wearing masks and maintaining distancing in daily life, concerns have arisen as to whether these kinds of aggressive and strict measures could invade privacy, and the information gathered misused.

Against such a backdrop, Ko, who also heads the Korean Association for AI and Law, said the coronavirus outbreak has ironically advanced the country's Personal Data Protection Act after dealing with an enormous amount of data every day.

"It has only been nine years since the country enacted the Personal Data Protection Act. So the coronavirus pandemic has made government officials think about what is important and what is not when dealing with the act," he said.

"The KCDC is the only government agency that collates all the personal information of people infected with the coronavirus and their contacts. Other agencies including the police only take the role of providing the information they have," Ko added.

However, the professor said the administration needs to clarify how it will handle the personal information it has collected. "Previously, the government announced it will discard all the information it collected after the virus pandemic ends. But it needs to clarify more details such as which department will dispose of the information."