SEOUL (Reuters) – 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 fast-spreading virus.
A woman wearing a mask to prevent the coronavirus uses her mobile phone at a shopping district in Seoul, South Korea, February 24, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
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 that was 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, who declined to be…
Source Reuters Tech News
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