Partial Supplement to COVID-19 Disaster Text 'Operation Manual'... Specific Details on Transmittable Items Clarified

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The content of the ‘COVID-19 Disaster Text Message Operation Manual’ will be partially adjusted.

On the 6th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that, considering public opinion that the existing information provision method increases fatigue among citizens as COVID-19 has become prolonged and normalized, it has shifted its direction to minimize the sending of disaster text messages and designated prohibited sending items. However, since there is a possibility of confusion in local governments’ judgment on whether to send messages for items other than the prohibited ones, the manual now specifically states the items that can be sent.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has allowed local governments to send the overall daily new confirmed case status once a day as requested by them, and for matters that the local government heads deem urgently necessary to inform residents, messages can be sent first and explanations provided afterward, enabling disaster text messages to be used flexibly and effectively in response to COVID-19.

Additionally, the manual clearly states that items not prohibited from sending include: ?situations of cluster infections ?epidemiological investigations or contact and testing guidance for visitors to places overlapping with confirmed patients’ movement paths ?quarantine policies strengthened beyond the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters ?vaccine-related information, among others.

However, simple confirmed case occurrence information, which has been sent several times a day regardless of time, will continue to be prohibited. For example, messages such as ‘Confirmed case number ○○○ occurrence (under epidemiological investigation/movement path identification, self-quarantine with no contacts, no movement path), no confirmed cases, all negative test results’ are prohibited.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety distributed the manual reflecting these matters to each local government on the same day. Going forward, necessary matters will be flexibly adjusted according to changes in the COVID-19 quarantine environment.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety explained, "While reducing excessive, duplicate, and late-night transmissions in line with the purpose of operating emergency disaster text messages, information necessary for COVID-19 quarantine will continue to be provided."

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