Hapcheon-gun Adjusts Criteria for Sending COVID-19 Disaster Safety Text Messages

Indiscriminate Disaster Alert Messages Increase Public Fatigue

Hapcheon County Office Building Exterior View

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has prepared disaster text message guidelines that strengthen the standards for sending disaster text messages related to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) starting from the 1st, restricting the sending of disaster text messages. However, due to demands from local governments and the public that information is limited amid the continuous increase in confirmed cases, partial transmission was allowed from the 6th.

According to the revised guidelines, ▲ information on the status of confirmed cases occurring during the day (or the previous day) ▲ occurrence status of cluster infections in schools and multi-use facilities ▲ urgent testing guidance when overlapping with confirmed cases' movement paths ▲ vaccine-related information ▲ local government quarantine policies stronger than those of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) can be transmitted.

Additionally, ▲ simple confirmed case occurrence information such as 'Confirmed case number ○○○ occurrence (including no occurrence), epidemiological investigation and movement path identification in progress, self-quarantine with no contacts, no movement paths' ▲ general personal quarantine guidelines such as mask-wearing, prohibition of private gatherings, hand washing ▲ content similar to that already sent by CDSCH or provincial offices twice a day ▲ transmission during late-night hours from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. is still prohibited.

If the guidelines are violated, the authority of local governments to send their own disaster text messages will be restricted for a certain period.

The background for establishing these guidelines appears to be the public complaints that indiscriminate disaster text message sending is increasing public fatigue the most.

The central government departments have repeatedly recommended local governments since last year to refrain from sending prohibited content as much as possible, but since no improvement has been observed, the guidelines are being implemented.

However, as confirmed cases have recently increased mainly outside the metropolitan area and cluster infections have occurred frequently in local governments, complaints such as "Why are you not informing about confirmed cases?" have continued.

On the 3rd, a petition titled 'Disaster text messages related to COVID-19 should be sent for elderly people and others' was also posted on the Blue House National Petition website.

A military official said, "We will reduce excessive, duplicate, and late-night transmissions in line with the purpose of operating emergency disaster text messages, but flexibly adjust necessary matters according to changes in the COVID-19 quarantine environment so that necessary information can continue to be provided."

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