Citizens Choose 'Seoul's Top 10 COVID-19 News' No.1 as 'ZeroPay and Seoul Love Gift Certificates'

Online Voting on COVID-19 News Among Over 240,000 Citizens
Broad Interest Across Economy, Quarantine, and Smart Policies

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The number one news in Seoul that became a source of strength to overcome the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) this year was 'Zero Pay and Seoul Love Gift Certificates.'

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 7th that in the citizen vote for the 'Top 10 COVID-19 News in Seoul,' conducted online for a total of 26 days from the 9th of last month to the 4th of this month, Zero Pay and Seoul Love Gift Certificates received 58,513 votes (9.2%) and took first place.

Second place was 'Seoul City Emergency Disaster Living Expenses' (50,962 votes, 8.0%), third was 'Care SOS Center' (49,318 votes, 7.8%), followed by 'Seoul Public Wi-Fi Kkachion' (36,401 votes, 5.7%) and 'Drive-Thru Mobile Screening Clinics' (34,433 votes, 5.4%).

A total of 241,256 people participated in this citizen vote, more than in previous years (each person could select up to three options), reflecting the high interest of citizens in COVID-19 related news.

Looking at the selected top 10 news by category: ▲ three items (1st, 2nd, and 9th) were economic and livelihood news that helped overcome COVID-19 ▲ four items (5th, 6th, 7th, and 10th) were safety, health, and quarantine news that protected Seoul from COVID-19 ▲ three items (3rd, 4th, and 8th) were culture, smart technology, and welfare news that helped endure COVID-19.

In summary, the Seoul Metropolitan Government explained that citizens recognize 'coexistence,' 'untact,' and 'S-quarantine' as important keywords this year.

Citizens showed interest in news that considered the community even amid the crisis caused by COVID-19, such as Zero Pay and Seoul Love Gift Certificates benefiting both consumers and small business owners, Seoul City Emergency Disaster Living Expenses contributing to both households in livelihood crisis and local economic revitalization, 'Eco-friendly Food Package Support for Student Families' helping both student households and eco-friendly farms, and the Care SOS Center that solved the COVID-19 care gap.

They also preferred news that helped adapt to the transition to non-face-to-face life caused by COVID-19, such as Zero Pay and Seoul Love Gift Certificates as contactless payment methods that do not require exchanging cards, 'Public Wi-Fi Kkachion' and 'Comprehensive Digital Capability Enhancement Measures' to solve information gaps and exclusion caused by the spread of untact lifestyles in the post-COVID era.

The Drive-Thru mobile screening clinics, which became a global standard model, the 'ban on urban rallies' to block large-scale COVID-19 spread, the 'COVID-19 confirmed case epidemiological investigation team,' and 'public transportation quarantine implementation,' all key COVID-19 quarantine-related news promoted by Seoul City, also received much attention.

Park Jin-young, Director of Citizen Communication Planning at Seoul City, said, "Seoul will do its best to stop COVID-19 by honoring the will of citizens who participated in the top 10 news vote," and urged, "Citizens should also comply with quarantine rules and participate in campaigns such as the 'Emergency Stop Campaign for Ten Million Citizens.'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.