When necessary, the officers were permitted to draw on four major types of information in addition to patient and doctor interviews:

- Facility visits, including pharmacies and medical facilities
- Cellular GPS data from cell phones
- Credit card transaction logs
- Closed-circuit television

The South Korean Government also developed apps that collected relevant data, which eased the burden on EIS officers and made it possible for them to cope with the high volume of investigations.

Ways that South Korea has proceeded Contact Tracing Using Big Data

Careful examination through a combination of epidemiological methods such as interviews and whole-genome sequencing had allowed the health authorities and scientists to break the first outbreak in Bavaria at the end of January. Even when the number of cases grew exponentially in Germany, tremendous efforts were still conducted to contact tracing for every single case, despite a lack of staff. Voluntary science projects were also launched to complement the government’s efforts.

Contact Tracing in Germany

Smith College

Contact tracing is used by health departments to prevent the spread of infectious disease. In general, contact tracing involves identifying people who have an infectious disease (cases) and people who they came in contact with (contacts) and working with them to interrupt disease spread. This includes asking people to isolate and their contacts to quarantine at home voluntarily. Contacts are also asked to monitor their symptoms daily, e.g., temperature checks, self-assessments based on common symptoms, and to get tested if any symptoms develop during their isolation.

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