[17 April 2020, v2]

Questions asked during the AI for Good Webinar Episode #1 COVID-19 Case Study: Using ICT & AI to flatten the curve in the Republic of Korea, held on 27 March 2020. Answers are provided by the panelists and do not reflect the official policy or position of the ITU. The questions are categorized into five sections:

1. Use of mobile apps & AI 2. Data collection & privacy 3. Testing and contact tracing 4. Mitigation and containment 5. General questions (stats, symptoms etc)

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Questions Answers 1 Is the SMART Quarantine information system will be very much relevant

system for COVID-19? Definitely useful. At least, the system can trace the routes of patients and places they visit.

2 Are this technology SMART and the App available as open source? How many people downloaded them?

I might be incorrect. As for as I know it is not shared in open source like Github yet. However, the developers would share in many ways.

3 How did you enforce the requirement that travellers had to download the mobile app?

They are required to enter the land at the ports. However, people should voluntarily keep the rules by entering daily life information.

4 Could you give more details on the use mobile phones and CCTV for contact tracing?

The private data are not just exposed or shared. The data is only used to locate the places the suspects visited by using calling records.

5 Can you elaborate about self-report apps? Do you also collect the picture (selfie) of the patient?

App interfaces with a person and submits the information of him/herself such as temperature, body condition, etc for early detection of the symptoms.

6 Do you think that it's a good idea to mandate public to install some kind of surveillance app to monitor their whereabouts and some health index?

No need to have all people to use it. It may cause privacy problems and waste of communication resources for little.

7 In Korea what are some prominent examples of using AI for COVID-19? A couple examples are Kakao's AI chatting robot and VUNO's tool to analyse lung image using AI technologies

8 How do people interact with the mobile app? Do they willingly communicate their suspicions if they are infected or not or they fear the stigma?

Mobile app reporting is mandatory for those who are under home quarantine.

9 When did you launch the IT Strategy to overcome Covid-19? Right after COVID-19 started, couple of high school students in Korea release the corona map which shows the route of confirmed patients.

10 Did your apps help contain the epidemic ? Will you make them available as open source? What are your plans to prevent reoccurrence? Do you have datasets that can help predicting recovery and did you apply AI models ?

Currently, all the technologies are used to settle down the situation. But I believe that we will (not only we) develop a model to predict re-occurrence of the infectious incidents.

11 Are any of these techs available as open source for others to replicate? Live answered

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12 Are these various software open source? Would other countries be able to leverage these software for their own context? Is there a mechanism that would allow other countries to quickly adapt these various solutions?

I will ask them if they can put them in the open source community, Github, it not open sourced yet.

13 Is the effort of using the ICT in Korea organized and managed solely by government, in terms of technology, apps, procedure, etc?

Not quite true. The policy is set and R&D projects are supported. The market size and ICT activities of private sector is much bigger than public sector.

14 Is there any work being done to use existing data of the evolution of the illness in order to map its future progression, using AI; and then project progression based on the implementation of this or that policy, testing/no testing, confinement/lockdown, etc.

Live answered

15 Do you have a framework for ethical AI in South Korea? It is under development now and discussed very actively in academia. 16 Are there any AI-based COVID-19 testing product in South Korea? I do not know about testing kit, but use of analysing lung are applied for

treatment. 17 When did you put this ICT Strategy for COVID-19? How much time does it

take to be ready to apply it? Live answered

18 Did Korea make efforts to use AI and the data already collected to predict future geographic hotspots where COVID-19 cases might emerge and perhaps consider preventive measures on the basis of predicted hotspots?

I believe that the AI & big data will be actively used for predicting the hot spots as well as developing new medicine for sure. We already initiated R&D projects for the purpose.

19 Did you use any robotics or drones this time to control the COVID 19? I heard robots are used in medical facilities, drones also. But not as mush as I wished.

20 Could there be a detection of the intensity of the infection via the Artificial intelligence application in a person? Depending on this intensity, could there be certain suggestions that the particular person could take on that infection?

There are predictions and suggestions by AI based applications. But, people do not yet rely 100% on the suggestions because they are new road never gone. It would be a stepping stone for next use.

21 With regards to the Information Provisions, how could Public chatbots like Wisenut correctly respond about viruses? Do they inform about Coronavirus only or other epidemics as well?

Wisenut is used to chat about corona, not other epidemics for now, but it was so far serviced for AI based consultation. It is matter of data for epidemics.

22 Have you tried something else with AI that did not succeed? I would not say 'not succeed", but still 'trying'. One of them is a synthesized medical information based decision model. Almost always lack of dataset is problem.

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23 What are AI techniques you used? AI techniques (vision, natural language processing) combined with computer systems technologies and data analysis.

24 I have seen China using big data to track and alert people in contact with the virus suspects. Just wanted to know the time needed to build this technology and how impactful the process is?

Implementation with GPS technology is quite simple, but the problem is as always data and privacy. It is very useful service to enforce the social distance campaign.

25 How has Korea gone about their 5G project (assuming they are not readily available online)?

We deployed 5G using 3.5G and plan to deeply using 28G and develop services specifically appropriate for 5G and IoT environment.

26 Did your data collection method involve any natural language processing/social media data mining to get an idea for who or where potential hot spots may occur?

Some of the services including AI robot by Kakao and other companies use natural language processing technique of AI to process.

27 Are there any privacy conflict during the collection of data? Does Korea have legal or regulatory guidance for collection of such data?

Live answered

28 How do you get all the gps and mobile data? Voluntarily or from telecom providers?

Live answered

29 To what extent did SMART quarantine system enabled you to find imported cases? Are there any restrictions on Data Security of the Travellers if this can be replicated in other countries during COVID-19 and after?

SMART quarantine system is only for reducing the manual effort related with data entry. The information is secured only for the public health response purposes.

30 Did you need to enact a special law in order to access the phone record of travellers?

Live answered

31 How do you guarantee that the data of the Korean citizens will “only” be used for the COVID-19 outbreak? I am talking about privacy concerns.

We have civilians to monitor the use of private information by government. However, we are also careful not to huddle in the way to overcome this disaster.

32 What were the personal data privacy protections that were put in place to strike a proper balance between the legitimate interest of the state to limit infection with the personal data privacy of smart phone users to be tracked by state entities?

Live answered

33 You are collecting and sharing personal health, location and contact data among multiple institutions. What mechanisms and rules do you have to restrict the processing, sharing and storage of such data to the public health purpose?

Live answered

34 Were there challenges with users or mobile network operators availing the international roaming data in confirming foreign travelling as part of tracing strategy?

Not sure the traveling information from roaming data is useful to keep track the travellers. Technically, it is not hard to implement, but I can not find big use.

35 Can you tell us what kind of regulatory frameworks or bottlenecks that need to be cleared to access information from phone companies? Is this something the RoK has done for all kinds of emergencies or only health emergencies?

The government uses the minimum information necessary in the closed system without changing regulation.

36 Regarding data sharing, how public and private sectors collaborate? Was there a centralized initiative from the government?

Yes, Ministry of Science, ICT initiated and discussed with private companies to find a way of using public data and collaboratively worked.

37 Is there a mandatory national digital ID system in South Korea? Not true. We have only social security numbers mandatory, not any ID in cyber space.

38 Were there any data-driven tool to tackle the virus, let's say in real time? Not that I know. 39 How about the location (such as name of the street) of the COVID-19

patients, is this also part of the personal data that can't be opened? I think they are. Even though they do not directly expose personal information, but could be combined with extra information to complete personal information. Thus, government promises to use it minimally.

40 What is the governance framework which allows civilians to monitor government use of personal information.

NGOs lead the activities monitoring government.

41 Would you be able to share a bit more details maybe on the techniques used for privacy-preserving analysis?

Blockchain and Federated learning techniques are widely used and studied for privacy protection.

42 Would it be possible to get an English version to South Korea's privacy law? We already have it. You can find personal data protection laws in Korea at https://www.privacy.go.kr/eng/index.do Conducting an epidemiological investigation and providing information is based on Article 18 of the "Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act" which can be found at http://www.law.go.kr/LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=188080&chrClsCd=010203&urlMode=engLsInfoR&viewCls=engLsInfoR#0000

43 Can you say more about the airport screening, surveillance and testing measures in place and how new technologies are used?

You can find more information in the KCDC website(ncov.mohw.go.kr/en/).

44 How soon after confirming the first infection did you begin to test 'all' travellers?

Based on evolving situation overseas.

45 Did you test patients without clear CoV symptoms? Live answered 46 By testing all travellers, do you mean those entering South Korea through all

ports (land and sea)? Did that also include people travelling within SK? It is only for travellers coming from overseas.

47 Could you explain how you maximize your test capacity in such a short time? Most European countries only test people who are in severe conditions and refuse to test people with no or mild symptoms, which is the opposite of WHO’s advice.

It was not developed in just short period of time. This kind of lab capacity was gradually established since MERS outbreak.

48 Can you explain more about the early detection phase and what methods you used?

Distribution of guidelines for finding imported case and subsequent testing and follow up of contacts.

49 Where does Korea buy the test kits and what was the major cure options for infected people?

We developed the test kits in Korea.

50 What will be your suggestion to the developing countries like Nepal who do not have sufficient number of kits for mass testing facility?

Social distancing is other options you can implement.

51 You mentioned that capacity of test today is 15K per day in average, maximum is 20K per day. How is the capacity planning was performed since MERS outbreak 2015 and due to the covid-19 outbreak, how fast Korean Government can increase the capacity of PCR test infrastructure?

It was not developed in just short period of time. This kind of lab capacity was gradually established since MERS outbreak.

52 Read about patient 31 as source of massive contagion peak and your successful tracking through a complex web of connections. Can you explain how the detailed tracking was done? Since you track geolocation on phones, was that key, so tech-related measures?

Used mobile app for contact monitoring and management and we were able to do this through collaboration of mobile services in the nation.

53 Have you tried any experimental treatment, or the fatality rate is just because of the high number of testing made?

Not at this point.

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54 Why is it important to perform as many COVID19 tests as possible? How many tests are recommended to be done per million people? Do current Covid19 tests are fast to get results?

Early detection and quarantine of contacts is the key to prevent widespread of virus.

55 Did you have a lot of false negative test results? No 56 are the testing free (the 15,000-20,000 testing conducted by 118 testing

institutions) ? Yes, it is funded by government.

57 How is Government of Korea planning to test and validate new medicine of Covid -19 using ICT technologies?

Government has funded already for the R&D projects to study based on big data and AI to protect new viruses as well as COVID-19.

58 To what extent your COVID-19 impressive readiness would depend on experience with MERS outbreak in 2015? Could you please give a percentage having influenced the establishment of a systematic mitigation and containment procedures and processes ready to be deployed population-wide?

Many parts of the current response were developed based on lessons learned from MERS outbreak in 2015.

59 Have you tested tap water? Do you have any information if the virus could spread through tap water we use in our houses?

No evidence at this point.

60 In some countries, travel ban against China was triggered early on. In Korea, it was a limited travel ban (only Hubei province visitors?) and triggered later. What was the rationale behind this?

Due to many considerations on the matters in various sectors.

61 How important was the private sector to implement your strategy? Did you need to put in place a new type of “temporary” governance?

Collaboration with private sector is critical to fully implement but no new temporary governance is needed.

62 How have lessons learned from other health crises such as SARS & MERS been applied to handling COVID-19 in Korea, if any?

Live answered

63 Do you already elaborate a projection a month from today of the number of new infections and deaths?

Who can dare anticipate the future, even tomorrow in this situation?

64 From my understanding, Korea never had to go on a strict nationwide lockdown unlike many other countries. Do you believe there was some cultural/social dynamics at play that led to citizens voluntarily adhering to social distancing?

Korea had experiences of hard times like IMF, Korean war, etc. All the cases were overcome by the collaboratively working population.

65 Any specific suggestions for European countries to contain the spreading of virus? It seems that lockdown is not showing effect in Italy and Germany yet.

Learn from the countries who experienced earlier and get some help as much as possible.

66 Do you have any explicit targets which will trigger lifting the measures, e.g. opening the schools again?

Not at this point.

67 You said thankfully you started to use 5G last year, do you believe that the adoption of 5G actually helped in the mitigation of the virus through the systems you have? what kind of things you wouldn’t be able to do if you would not have the 5G?

5G delivers data and contents faster (20 times than LTE) so we could share the virus data among researchers. Also, 5G greatly contributed to operating on-line classes in my university, SKKU.

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68 In Asian countries, everyone is encouraged to wear masks to prevent the virus, no matter you are sick or healthy. What’s your opinion about the mask policy in Europe (only sick people need to wear masks, healthy people do not need masks)?

For this corona, symptom-free patients could be everywhere. So, I would recommend everyone wears mask to protect him/herself as well as others.

69 What about developing countries? They have more chances in ICT development. Privacy is concern, long way to go.

70 Any statistics available on the severe and very severe cases distribution (age-wise)?

Live answered

71 Is South Korea reaching out to their parents in Africa and Middle EAST to share this knowledge/experience to assist countries to apply similar emergency systems/ measures?

Conference call and bilateral communication is ongoing based on request.

72 What protection mechanisms were applied to medical personnel and security forces in charge of enforcing regulations? Same than to general population or greater due to over exposure?

I do not think we have special mechanism for the situation but try to keep the regulation as usual.

73 How likely is it to transfer through air? It can clearly spread with aerosol but there is no clear evidence of airborne transmission at this point.

74 The current global fatality rate is 4.5%, do you think this can go up? It will increase as the virus spread to vulnerable population group. 75 Is there a correlation with weather condition or temperature degree where

COVID-19 spread/impact is minimised? No evidence at this point.

76 At the end of Dr. Lee's presentation, she mentioned no indoor fitness activities. But isn't building our immune system not an advantage to combat the virus?

No indoor fitness activities in public gathering facilities and not for individual fitness activities inside of home.

77 Is there an interaction of age and gender? Do the distribution is similar? Or men of older age die more often than women?

Under analysis

78 Would small kids get infected? We have 126 total cases with 0~9 years old age group and so far, we have not identified any fatal cases.

79 Can you comment on percentage of patients who got coronavirus as a hospital acquired infection?

Under analysis

80 Does this group of 20 years females in the chart have active or passive symptoms? Or is it mixed?

Need clarification of question

81 For the fatal cases, did you find any correlation with other health problems (i.e. heart, stroke, ...)?

Chronic conditions and underlying diseases clearly attributed to higher mortality rate.

82 Can recovered individuals be re-infected? Do you have any data on the percentage of confirmed cases who were treated and fully recovered being

There were some cases so far and more analysis is needed.

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re-infected after they were released from the health-facilities where they were treated?

83 Does the break (in the distribution by region and cluster slide) for Daegu show the second wave of covid-19? When did the clustering of cases start for South Korea? How compliant were the citizens with the stay at home guidelines? During the screening at the hospital and screening drive-thru centres, were citizens truthful in answering questions by the authorities? How did Korea produce such a large amount of test kits in the initial stages? How long did it take to develop the mask app and diagnosis app, including roll out, and to gain traction among the public?

It may take a few days to develop Mask app, but it is not matter of software coding but the way of analysing for diagnosis app. Once it is known how to analyse, it does not take a long time.

84 Private hospitals seem not much serious to use its resources on this crucial time. How can the Government intervene to nationalize the private hospitals?

It depends on situation of each country.

85 Can you quickly comment on the economic impact in Korea? In the West many businesses shut down and growing queues of unemployed. What has been the Korean experience to date?

The difficulties and suffering from the economic disaster should be same as other countries. People, particularly the small businesses.

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