The current Act prescribes that when an infectious disease breaks out, the Minister of Health and Welfare, Mayor/Do Governor, or head of a Si/Gun/Gu may have the relevant public official take measures for persons suspected of contracting the infectious disease, which include quarantine at home or in a facility or checking the presence or absence of symptoms of an infectious disease based on wired or wireless communications, or using devices based on information and communications technology, etc.

Accordingly, the Korean government allows a safety protection application to be used for checking whether persons suspected of contracting an infectious disease are absent without permission from their place of quarantine, thereby preventing the further spread of the infectious disease, but safety protection applications can only be installed based on consent, so that when persons suspected of contracting an infectious disease have not installed the safety protection application, checking whether they are in compliance has to be done using wired communications or in-person visits, which tends to impose a greater burden on COVID-19 responders and is less effective.

Therefore, this proposal aims to enable an order to install and use mobile applications to be issued at the same time as an order to self-quarantine, thereby improving the effectiveness of quarantines and establishing an effective response system to counter infectious diseases (Article 42 (2) 1-2, newly inserted).

Enable a duty to install and use mobile applications to be imposed on persons suspected of contracting an infectious disease (Article 42 (2) 1-2).