Cidades inteligentes e sustentáveis e doenças infecciosas: como a Coréia do Sul conseguiu controlar a pandemia da COVID-19

Abstract

With more than 1 million victims worldwide, the COVID-19 is already one of the worst pandemics in history, and certainly the worst pandemic of the 21st century. Beyond that, it is the proof that the world is not prepared to deal with a problem of this magnitude. Within this context, South Korea is currently one of the best countries when it comes to an effective response to the pandemic. Not only that, but unlike countries like New Zealand that managed to prevent the virus from spreading in the first place, South Korea was able to control SARS-CoV 2 when it had already spread across the country, being at the beginning of the pandemic one of the most affected countries by the virus, which turned to be currently a country that has, comparatively, a very low number of cases and, consequently, deaths. Thus, the main objective of this work is to understand, from the case study of South Korea, how Smart and Sustainable Cities, a city model that is becoming increasingly popular, are able to control outbreaks of infectious diseases through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The hypothesis raised is that the infrastructure of Smart and Sustainable Cities contributed to an effective response to COVID-19 in South Korea through Information and Communication Technologies, validated through a literature review covering several scientific articles, information of reliable newspapers, WHO and OECD documents, as well as documents from the government and specific agencies in South Korea. The results show that ICTs were central in enabling, among other things, the effective functioning of the system for contact tracing of infected people in the main affected cities, thanks to the previous structure of smart and sustainable city models in the country.