Seoul, South Korea. The country has embraced technology to successfully fight the virus. Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay
In South Korea, technology is taking on the virus
South Korea has apps that track visitors, bracelets for keeping tabs on quarantine breakers, and bus shelters which take temperatures.
Seoul, South Korea. The country has embraced technology to successfully fight the virus. Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay
In South Korea they love their technology and their gadgets. It is also one of the countries that have managed to bring the coronavirus relatively quickly under control and return life to a semblance of normality.
The connection between the two is not a coincidence. South Korea is using tech in numerous ways to gain an advantage in the fight against the pandemic.
Strategy is to use technology and testing
“The country has controlled COVID-19 by rapidly scaling up testing as well as relying on other high-tech solutions,” the publication Business Insider reported in May.
“A government app tracks the location of all new visitors to the country; people who violate quarantine have to wear a location-tracking bracelet; [and] ‘smart city’ tech is being deployed to bolster contact tracing networks.”
For example, using personal data combined with artificial intelligence, it would take a South Korean official roughly 10 minutes to work out where an infected patient travelled over the course of the day, Reuters reported.
Rollout of ‘smart’ bus shelter
Now the tech has gone a step further. This week ‘smart’ bus shelters that can monitor your vital health signs and decide whether to let you into their confined space with other commuters were launched in the capital city of Seoul.
To enter, you stand in front of a camera and temperature monitor and, if your body is under the 37.5-degrees C health threshold, then you’re in. If not, you’re advised to go and be tested.
An identical system is set at a lower level to check children.
Ultraviolet lamps to kill viruses
Once you make it inside the glass-walled shelter, the air-conditioning systems has ultraviolet lamps to kill viruses at the same time as cooling the air.
A dispenser provides hand sanitiser, and users are advised to self-distance and to wear face masks at all times.
And, to ensure that you don’t miss your bus while you’re inside your glass cocoon, there’s a panel that displays estimated arrival times and a screen which livestreams the traffic outside.
