App installs approach one million, with an average of 15.7 check-ins per person per week
[Article] Jeju's Entry Log App Safe Code Passes 50,000 Registered Businesses
Jeju Self-Governing Province announced on the 21st that Jeju Safe Code, the province's own electronic entry log application launched on December 21 of last year, had passed 50,000 registered businesses that same day, six months after its release.
As of 11 a.m. on the 20th, a total of 978,962 people had installed the Jeju Safe Code app, and active users, meaning those who had actually authenticated an entry record, numbered around 600,000.
Jeju Safe Code is a province-specific electronic entry log created to respond effectively to COVID-19 cluster infections by quickly identifying where confirmed cases had been and who they had contact with.
Because the existing electronic entry log, KI-Pass, requires each business to buy its own reader, it can be a burden on small business owners. Looking for faster epidemiological investigation, Jeju signed a public-private cooperation agreement with Korean blockchain company ICONLOOP on August 19 of last year and officially launched the service.
KI-Pass works by having users obtain a one-time QR code through a mobile messenger app or portal service and then authenticate with it, whereas Safe Code gives each business its own store-specific
That removes the financial burden of buying a terminal and does away with the hassle of authenticating a phone or a separate device every time a customer walks in.
In the first month or so after Safe Code launched there were only 9,368 registered businesses and 133,088 app installs (with a monthly average of 125,603 active users), but six months on, businesses number 50,054 and installs 978,962, increases of 5.3 times and 4.3 times respectively.
The average number of weekly check-ins per person also rose more than thirteenfold, from 1.2 in the fourth week of December last year to 15.7 as of the third week of June.
Jeju Safe Code has been a particular help to epidemiological investigators facing burnout, because it quickly identifies where confirmed COVID-19 cases have been and who they contacted.
Its strength in epidemiological investigation comes from the way three systems are linked together: the Safe Code mobile app that users authenticate QR codes with, the confirmed-case lookup system that lets investigators search visit histories and contacts, and the business registration management system for applying for and issuing QR codes online.
To identify contacts and then guide them to testing and take steps to prevent further spread, investigators first have to pin down the venue and the exact time confirmed by the epidemiological investigation.
An official at a public health center who goes out on site investigations to trace the precise movements of confirmed cases said Jeju Safe Code makes it possible to check visitor histories quickly and accurately, unlike handwritten entry logs that come with mistyped entries and handwriting that has to be deciphered, and that it is highly efficient.
In recent investigations, checking confirmed cases' Jeju Safe Code authentication records first has made it possible to pin down contacts who were there at the same time within seconds, sparing administrators a great deal of work.
Jeju Safe Code is also useful for identifying people and finding contacts who do not show up on closed-circuit television.
Beyond identifying who used multi-use facilities where unspecified numbers of people come and go, so that priority testing targets can be selected, the business information held in the system also makes it possible to obtain a location or contact number immediately.
Another feature is that when every visitor has authenticated their entry, contacts can be sorted without disclosing the name of the business, allowing for faster quarantine measures.
In May, when cluster infections traced to multi-use facilities were frequent, 2,728 Safe Code visit records were looked up and used in epidemiological investigations.
In one case, every visitor to a wedding hall that a confirmed case had attended was identified, and testing guidance was issued swiftly to nearly 1,000 contacts.
Because it eases the burden on small business owners who face falling sales from COVID-19 on top of having to manage visitors, and because it can quickly trace contacts down to secondary and further levels, it has been named a best-practice case in Jeju Self-Governing Province's civil complaint system improvement program.
Taebong Lim, head of the Jeju COVID-19 Quarantine Response Task Force, said that voluntary entry authentication by tourists and residents has to come before anything else if epidemiological investigations are to be fast, and asked everyone to use Safe Code or a similar method to leave a record of their movements when entering a facility, so that they can protect themselves from any risk of infection. <Headline Jeju>
Source: Headline Jeju (http://www.headlinejeju.co.kr)