S. Korea to implement QR-code visitor logs for clubs and nightlife establishments

Posted on : 2020-05-25 15:23 KST Modified on : 2020-05-25 15:23 KST
Itaewon club outbreak may extend to sixth-generation transmission
A coin karaoke room in Seoul is closed on May 24 after a government ban was implemented on May 22. (Yonhap News)
A coin karaoke room in Seoul is closed on May 24 after a government ban was implemented on May 22. (Yonhap News)

On May 24, disease control authorities announced plans to use QR code-based “electronic visitor logs” at clubs and other nightlife establishments as of early June in order to minimize transmission of the novel coronavirus. The measure is intended to prevent situations like the infection cluster originating in Seoul’s Itaewon clubs, which has shown a robust transmission trend. A potential sixth-generation infection reported the same day; patients without identifiable transmission routes continue to be diagnosed through the country.

“We encountered substantial difficulties in contact tracing while investigating [the outbreak] at clubs in Itaewon because many visitors had written false information on visitor logs. That slowed down our efforts to determine who came into contact with infected individuals and to quarantine them, which has led to additional cases of the disease,” said South Korean Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo as he explained the reasons for adopting electronic visitor logs during a regular press briefing on Sunday afternoon. Park also serves as first vice director of Korea’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH).

The electronic visitor logs will work in the following way. When a customer enters a facility, he/she will present staff with a single-use QR code downloaded from Naver or another service provider. Personal information including the visitor’s name and phone number will be transmitted to the QR code provider while the facility information and visitor log will be transmitted to a government agency called the Social Security Intelligence Service. This data will be stored for four weeks in an encrypted form and then deleted. The electronic register system will be mandatory at establishments facing an assembly ban including nightclubs and discos, but the rules will only apply when Korea’s infectious disease alert level is at “serious” or “alert,” the two highest levels. This system will be rolled out on a trial basis early next month and then implemented across the board in the middle of the month.

While the disease control authorities say there hasn’t been an explosion of cases over the past two weeks, they’re worried that contact tracers are having trouble keeping up with the cases spreading out from the Itaewon club outbreak. On Sunday, a man in Seoul’s Jungnang District tested positive for COVID-19 in what’s thought to represent the sixth link in a transmission chain. He’s believed to have contracted the disease from his wife (in her 40s), who caught it from a coworker who attended a baby’s first birthday party in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. That coworker had ridden with a taxi driver who’d given a ride to a student who’d attended classes with a cram school instructor in Incheon who’d visited an Itaewon club.

There have also been more cases in a fifth wave of infections in the Itaewon club outbreak. The city of Incheon announced on Sunday that an individual identified as “D” who resides in the Sangok neighborhood of Incheon’s Bupyeong District and D’s son had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. D had taken a ride with the same taxi driver whose infection originated with the cram school instructor, and D’s son is believed to be the fifth link in the transmission chain. There’s also an increasing number of cases in which the route of transmission is uncertain. Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said that it was unable to identify the route of transmission for 6.8% of patients over the past two weeks, which was up 0.2 points from the previous two weeks. The percentage of patients who test positive after being identified through contact tracing and placed under self-quarantine has also fallen below 80%.

An infection that began at Daegu Agricultural Meister High School has spread to a church in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. After a third-year high school student at the school spread the disease to his brother (in his 20s), the brothers passed on the disease to the pastor of Elim Church in Central Market in the Wonpyeong neighborhood of Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, his wife, and three other churchgoers. In Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, a farmer in his 30s with no connection to the Itaewon club outbreak tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, prompting public health authorities to launch an epidemiological investigation.

In related news, the disease control authorities will be requiring foreigners residing in Korea on long-term visas to apply for a re-entry permit before traveling overseas and to get a health check before re-entering Korea. The move, which is aimed at preventing foreigners from returning to the country after contracting COVID-19 overseas, will go into effect on June 1.

By Kwon Ji-dam, Choi Ye-rin and Suh Hye-mi, staff reporters, and Lee Jung-ha, Incheon correspondent, and Koo Dae-sun, Daegu correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories