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Medical workers take a break, looking at their mobile phones in plastic bags, at a drive-thru COVID-19 screening center set up in the parking lot of Seoul Sports Complex on Apr. 7. (Yonhap News)

In an attempt to prevent people under self-quarantine from leaving their homes without permission, the South Korean government considered the option of forcing them to wear an electronic wristband linked to a smartphone application. A day later, however, officials shelved the idea in the face of criticism that it might be an excessive infringement of human rights. Instead, the government will take a tougher approach to punishment by having prosecutors ask that those who break quarantine rules be sent to prison.

“In a meeting of relevant ministers chaired by the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health and Welfare and the Minister of the Interior and Safety expressed their opposition to adopting electronic wristbands, which they said might violate human rights. Participants in the meeting agreed to respect the position of the public health officials and didn’t schedule another meeting on this topic,” a government official said on Apr. 7.

During a daily briefing held on Tuesday morning at the same time as the meeting of relevant ministries, an official from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said the government was “looking into electronic wristbands as one way to bolster monitoring of people under self-quarantine.” But during the actual meeting, the government backed away from that idea.

The wristband that the government had considered would cause an alarm to go off if the quarantined individual moves more than 20m away from their smartphone. Staff monitoring the alarm would then alert a government caseworker, who would immediately visit the place of quarantine to check whether the individual in question had broken quarantine.

Experts don’t favor this method of monitoring people under self-quarantine. “We need to bear in mind that people aren’t being placed under self-quarantine because they’ve done something wrong. It would be more effective to provide repeated training [about the need to obey the rules],” said Chung Jin-won, a professor of infectious disease at Chung-Ang University Hospital.

“An individual’s location is already sensitive information. Forcing an individual under self-quarantine [to wear an electronic wristband] is to treat them as a potential criminal and to infringe on their bodily freedom. We mustn’t be remiss in protecting human rights and democratic decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Han Sang-hie, a law professor at Konkuk University.

The government has decided to postpone the discussion of adopting wristbands and to instead toughen punishments for those who violate the self-quarantine guidelines. The Supreme Prosecutor’s Office announced on Tuesday that it will be filing charges against those who deliberately break quarantine and asking judges to send convicted individuals to prison.

This guideline means that offenders will be put on trial rather than being let off with a fine. The current Infectious Disease Prevention Act states that individuals who violate hospitalization and quarantine guidelines set out by the public health authorities can face up to a year in prison or a fine up to 10 million won (US$8,205).

Among the 46,566 people under self-quarantine as of the afternoon of Apr. 6, 75 individuals (in 67 incidents) were being investigated for allegedly violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act or the Quarantine Act. The prosecutors have indicted three of these individuals without placing them under detention.

For two days in a row, South Korea has reported 47 new cases of COVID-19 and 53 new cases on Apr. 8. The public health authorities are viewing this as a positive development, marking the results of the first week of intense social distancing, from Mar. 22 to Mar. 28. But believing that it’s too soon to relax, the authorities are planning to focus on stamping out infections that continue to smolder at various points around the Seoul Capital Area (SCA).

Starting this week, the disease safety headquarters will carry out joint inspections of nightlife establishments, with public hygiene officials leading teams including police officers and food sanitation inspectors. Inspections at nightclubs will mostly be taking place between 11 pm and 4 am, the authorities said.

“Experts estimate that we can reduce the incidence of disease by at least 95% if we carry out intense social distancing for an average of three weeks. We need you to keep putting that into practice,” said Kwon Jun-wook, deputy director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By Park Da-hae, Noh Ji-won, Kwon Ji-dam, Seong Yeon-cheol, and Jang Pil-su, staff reporters

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