Coronavirus: South Korea to limit information about patients

South Korea plans to limit the amount of information it releases about coronavirus patients amid criticism that the details currently shared reveal too much personal information and exacerbate panic.

The director of South Korea's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Jung Eun-kyeong, on Friday said her agency is drafting a new guideline for local governments to prevent them from releasing details that are unnecessary for quarantine and prevention work.

She didn't say what specific recommendations would be included in the guideline.

South Korean health authorities have been actively using personal information — including immigration, public transportation, credit card and smartphone GPS data — to track patients and their contacts.

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Details about the places patients visited before testing positive are posted online and shared through smartphone alerts to inform people who may have been in their vicinity.

South Korea's Human Rights Commission on Monday raised concerns about the release of the data, saying patients were being exposed to "criticism, ridicule and hate".

Some people have used the information to identify the patients and have publicly condemned them for moving around while sick. There are concerns that the release of the detailed information is worsening panic and discouraging sick people from coming forward.

A recent survey by Seoul National University's Graduate School of Public Health found that many people were more afraid of being stigmatised as a virus patient than of catching the virus itself. 

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