South Korea, criticized for coronavirus outbreak response, will limit information about infected patients

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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.

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

A worker wearing a protective suit sprays disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a karaoke in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

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 that patients visited before testing positive are posted online and shared through smartphone alerts to others.

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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.”

A men wearing face mask walks along the Han river at a park in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Some people have used the information to identify the patients and have publicly condemned them for moving around while sick.

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

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