COVID-19 Disaster Alert Messages to Be Significantly Reduced
Ministry of the Interior and Safety Switches to Initial COVID-19 Information Provision Method
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Disaster text message transmissions related to COVID-19 will be significantly reduced going forward.
On the 31st, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that, considering public opinion that the existing information provision method is increasing fatigue among citizens amid the prolonged and normalized COVID-19 situation, the items to be guided via disaster text messages will be minimized.
Disaster text messages have played a significant role since the early stages of COVID-19 by providing rapid and transparent information to minimize regional spread. However, as the public's COVID-19 response capabilities have improved and most information can now be confirmed through other media such as local government websites, there have been calls to minimize the sending of disaster text messages.
Accordingly, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has specified prohibited items for disaster text message transmissions and strengthened the manual operation standards to allow transmissions only for specific matters. Prohibited transmissions include ▲confirmed case occurrences (or non-occurrences) and movement paths, local government action plans ▲personal quarantine rules commonly known by the public ▲promotion of local government COVID-19 response performance, general matters such as facility openings and closures ▲duplicate transmissions of matters identical or similar to those announced by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters ▲transmissions during late-night hours (10 PM to 7 AM the next day). For prohibited items, guidance is to be provided using other media such as local government websites or SNS.
Furthermore, to ensure the effectiveness of the manual, local governments that repeatedly fail to comply will have their authority to directly send disaster text messages restricted for a certain period. The transmission status of local governments nationwide will be monitored daily, and upon discovering non-compliance cases, recurrence prevention will be requested. If such cases repeat, for cities, counties, and districts, the metropolitan/provincial government, and for metropolitan/provincial governments, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will review and approve the message content before transmission.
However, the restriction on direct transmission authority is limited to COVID-19 related matters, and the authority to send messages related to other types of disasters such as heavy rain, typhoons, wildfires, and fires will be maintained.
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Jeon Hae-cheol, Minister of the Interior and Safety, stated, “Disaster text messages have served as the most important means of providing information from the early stages of COVID-19, including confirmed case movement paths, quarantine policies, public mask sales, and disaster relief fund payment guidance. However, it is reasonable to shift the operational direction to suit the prolonged and normalized COVID-19 situation.” He added, “We ask citizens to frequently check information provided through local government websites and to continue actively cooperating with government and local government quarantine policies.”
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