Updated on: 2020-03-28
| Response | |
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| Q1A. What arrangements, if any, do you have in place to ensure scientific advice informs national policy and decision making in relation to Covid-19? | - The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of the Republic of Korea takes int account the opinions of industry experts, academics and researchers in government policies for COVID-19. - Korea’s disease control and prevention capabilities based on expertise are in full force. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) is led by Director Jung Eun-Kyeong, who holds a doctorate degree in preventive medicine, and more than 70 researchers work for the Korea National Institute of Health (NIH), an affiliated organization of the KCDC. - Academic societies, including the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, Korean Society for Preventive Medicine and the Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology, formed an academia-wide COVID-19 response council and published statements to convey their opinions to the government and the public. The Special Committee on Biotechnology under the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology (S&T) is also providing expert knowledge through expert meeting on COVID-19 response. An online forum was also held by the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, Korean Academy of Science and Technology and the National Research Council of Science & Technology. |
| Q1B. In what ways, if any, are you coordinating on Covid-19 STI responses at international level? | - Korea participated in the weekly ministerial conference call meetings (on March 11, 18 and 25) on STI response for COVID-19, organized by the Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) of the U.S in which 11 to 14 countries participated, and discussed international cooperation measures (e.g. use AI to extract relevant information from open data, measures to share COVID-19 data and research outcomes). - During the bilateral ministerial call meeting between Korea and US held on March 6 Korea shared the benchmarking cases of Korea, such as the use of Drive-Thru and Self-diagnosis App and sought ways to cooperate in various fields such as diagnostic technology and vaccine development |
| Q2.Do you have dedicated arrangements in place for communicating science advice and for refuting misleading information to the public on Covid-19? | - Korea shares the latest available scientific information in a prompt and transparent manner through official website(ncov.mohw.go.kr) as stipulated in domestic law (Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act) which establishes the public’s right to be informed about the latest developments of and responses to outbreaks and infection control. Korea also mandates the disclosure of the whereabouts, means of transportation, healthcare institutions visited, and contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases. - Korea shares the latest information (the number of patients, the number of those of under isolation, the number of diagnostic tests, whereabouts of confirmed cases, etc.) and relevant measures via regular briefing that take place twice a day (by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters in the morning and the Central Disease Control Headquarters in the afternoon) and the frequent distribution of press release, as well as via websites, SNS channels, and portal sites. - Korea is also promoting the code of conduct for infection prevention. For example, Korea is distributing customized promotional materials for daycare centers, schools, healthcare institutions, pharmacies, etc., and delivering information through a range of easily accessible media (TV, radio, trains, buses, YouTube channels, etc.). Also, Korea is offering counselling for and receiving reports from the public and healthcare institutions through public health centers and the KCDC call center (☎1339) (15,908 call cases out of 16,557(96.1%) & 483 health care out of 485 (99.9%) handled as of March 25). - Korea is stringently responding to fake news, which leads to excessive public anxiety and causes confusion in infection control, through the pan-governmental cooperation system that encompasses Korea Communications Commission, the National Police Agency, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. - Regarding COVID-19 media coverage, an expert group is providing review comments and global trend reports. - The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology(KRIBB) has opened a portal (http://kobic.re.kr/COVID19) to quickly collect and provide research data and information related to COVID-19 from around the world. - The Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, National Academy of Medicine of Korea and the National Research Council of Science & Technology jointly organized an online forum to fact check COVID-19 information on March 12. |
| Q3. What new STI policy measures, if any, is your country taking to respond specifically to the Covid-19 crisis? | - Korea is actively carrying out public-private clinical studies on COVID-19 vaccine and treatment. Korea undertook studies on testing kits, treatment, epidemiological study and vaccine development since February 2020. - The MSIT supported private companies’ development of COVID-19 testing kits to make rapid testing available as soon as possible. Three of the five companies that developed COVID-19 testing kits received support from the MSIT. - The MSIT is also supporting the Institute Pasteur Korea and Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology to find a treatment for COVID-19 through repurposing drugs whose safety is verified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. - To help Korean COVID-19 testing companies secure technological competitiveness, the MSIT has formed a research council on medical devices for infectious diseases with government-funded research institutes and hospitals specializing in infectious diseases and medical devices, and is providing necessary technology, equipment and networks. |
| Q4A. At national level, what mechanisms are you developing or relying upon to bring together different STI actors (researchers, industry, government, health sector, foundations, etc.) to effectively collaborate on responses to Covid-19? | - The central government is cooperating with local governments to respond to COVID-19 effectively. The Central Disaster Management Headquarters (led by the KCDC director) is responsible for all disease control activities, while the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (led by the prime minister) is providing a swift government-wide support. As for local governments, the Local Disaster Management Headquarters (managed by local government heads) is taking all infection prevention measures available for COVID-19 response. - Korea formed a COVID-19 response consultative body (composed of Korean Medical Association, Korean Hospital Association, Korea Dentist Association, Association of Korean Medicine, Korean Nurses Association and Korea Pharmaceutical Association) to share COVID-19 response situations and how the medical and pharmaceutical circles should cooperate and exchange opinions on the medical response in the field. |
| Q4B. At international level, what mechanisms are you developing or relying upon to bring together different STI actors (researchers, industry, government, health sector, foundations, etc.) to effectively collaborate on responses to Covid-19? | - Korea is participating in international COVID-19 response by inviting foreign researchers to Korean COVID-19 research projects or joining in international cooperative research projects on COVID-19. - For example, a clinical research team from the WHO is going to participate in the cohort research led by Korean doctors on the virus’ cycle (infection-exacerbation-recovery). - The International Vaccine Institute, located in Korea, formed an industry-academia-research institution consortium with Korean universities and biotech companies to develop a DNA vaccine for COVID-19 (GX-19). |
| Q5. What novel approaches, if any, is your country using to address the coronavirus crisis (e.g. use of machine learning, open science initiatives boosting access and sharing of data and research results, development and use of prediction models, etc.)? | -To contain COVID-19 outbreaks, the Korean government has established a support system for quarantine and epidemiological study using big data and ICT. As this system uses smart city technologies, which collect and process large-scale city data, the government can quickly identify and track the locations of confirmed and suspect cases to curb the spread of the virus. - When MERS-CoV spread in Korea in 2015, Korea amended its Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act to allow using data exceptionally to control and prevent the spread of infectious disease while protecting privacy. In response to COVID-19, using cloud platforms to collect and analyse data, Korea has efficiently shared information with the KCDC, local governments, telecommunications companies and credit card companies to establish a faster epidemiological investigation system. - To contain the spread of the virus, Korea supported the development of applications that allow citizens to self-diagnose and civil servants to monitor the health status and locations of citizens who are under self-quarantine. - Korea has effectively released a limited amount of public masks to prevent the spread of infection among citizens, and shared public information about the public masks in cooperation with private companies to solve purchase inconveniences and concerns. As a result of cooperation with private companies, the relevant application and web service were developed quickly. - To support small and medium-sized enterprises in teleworking, Korea provides SMEs with subsidies for cloud service fees (2.5 billion KRW) and a smart work pilot project (300 million KRW), while providing free or discounted teleworking-related services by partnering with major Korean software companies. - In response to the increasing necessity for distance learning following the spread of COVID-19, Korea provided free, zero-rating-based online education to low and middle income students in cooperation with three major telecommunications companies. - Besides, various AI and data companies in Korea are actively participating to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. Representatively, companies provide GIS-based comprehensive situation map services to provide information on the spread of infection and response information. In addition, by providing AI voice-bot service, it is possible to check the health status of people showing symptoms or those who have contacted infected persons. Also, the companies provide trend information through media traffic data analysis. In addition, cloud companies are carrying out various supports to help small and medium-sized enterprises overcome the COVID-19 crisis, including support for developing COVID-19 related applications, web services, and telecommuting solutions. Healthcare companies such as Seegene, Vuno and JLK Inspection utilize AI technologies to drastically reduce the time for developing diagnostics kits and reading X-ray images. Other companies including Deargen and Arontier use AI technologies in screening for drug repositioning and identifying candidate materials for new drug, which would dramatically reduce the time for developing therapeutics. |
| Q6A. What impact on the STI system do you anticipate in the short-, medium- and long-term, and what measures are you implementing to address those? | - In the short run, R&D budget for infectious diseases will increase; in the middle to long term, international cooperation for infectious disease response will be strengthened (e.g. sharing of information about infectious disease symptoms, global platform for virus data, joint development of vaccines and treatments, global disease prevention and control system, etc.) - Korea is implementing measures to reorganize STI system for infectious diseases and periodically check the system, and plans to establish a virus research institute that comprehensively studies viruses to systematically respond to infectious diseases. |
| Q6B. Is support of the STI system part of planned stimulus packages aimed at supporting the economy? | In order to recover from the economic damage caused by COVID-19, Korea has established an additional budget of 11.73 trillion KRW, of which 71.5 billion KRW has been budgeted for R&D. Considering the existing emergency response research, the total amount for COVID-19 related R&D is 10.9 billion KRW. Emergency response research is tasked to respond to various unexpected disaster and safety problems. These COVID-19 emergency response research includes rapid diagnosis, re-creation of therapeutics, analysis of unique characteristics of COVID-19, and acquisition of research resources and prediction of spread. |
| Q7. Is there anything else regarding the STI policy response to Covid-19 in your country you would like to mention? | Instead of travel bans or lockdown measures, Korea has actively tested asymptotic and suspected cases to mitigate COVID-19 outbreaks. What made Korea’s approach successful is regulatory flexibility that allowed innovative measures such as emergency approval (limited but prompt approval of production, sale and use of testing kits) and Drive-Thru testing. |