South Koreans turn to online tracking

There already are laws in place against the wildlife trade, but conservationists say they are full of loopholes regarding many species, and that enforcement is episodic or just plain lax.

After the epidemic began exploding across the country, China late last month ordered a temporary ban “until the national epidemic situation is over”. – AFP

SEOUL: As the new coronavirus spreads in South Korea, private software developers have set up websites and apps to help people track cases and shun places where infected people have been in the hope of avoiding the fastspreading virus.

The government, stung by criticism of how it handled past outbreaks, initially released very detailed information on confirmed cases, including the age, gender and daily routes infected people took before being quarantined.

Identities were not published but the information enabled web developers to build detailed maps tracking the movements of patients.

“We experienced a public backlash after a mass infection took place during the MERS outbreak five years ago, because we didn’t make public where those patients had gone,” a health official told Reuters.

A button on one of the sites, Coronamap.live, is labeled “See whether I am safe”. A click shows users if there are any known coronavirus cases in their vicinity.

Seo Su-sung, a 21-year-old student who finds Coronamap.live useful, said the more information, the better for everyone.

“It keeps society at ease to avoid the contaminated areas when you can,” Seo said.

Ryan Jun-seo Hong, 19, a computer science major, who set up the Coronamap.live site, said more than 300,000 people have been viewing the site every day.

Another developer, Kwon Young-jae, runs a similar site with his wife, Ju Yeun-jin, who is also a software developer, but they have been overwhelmed by the surge in cases.

Their Wuhanvirus.kr shows a real-time tally of the infections, deaths and discharged patients from both South Korea and the world.