Coronavirus Disease Exposure and Spread from Nightclubs
An interesting article in the emerging infectious diseases Journal of the CDC showed that 246 cases of COVID-19 were linked to nightclubs in Seoul, South Korea.
During the April 30 to May 5 bank holiday, young adults from the whole of the country visited nightclubs in Seoul, contracted COVID-19 and spread it nationally. Nightclubs were then temporarily closed to limit COVID-19 spread.
In South Korea they conducted contact tracing for this outbreak using multiple forms of advanced information technology. This included location data from mobile devices, credit card payment history, geographic positioning service data, drug utilisation review, public transportation transit pass records, and closed-circuit television footage.
The review concluded that in spite of the low incidence of COVID-19 in the post-peak period of the pandemic, super spreading related to visiting nightclubs in Seoul has the potential to spark a resurgence of cases in South Korea.
Would the population of the United Kingdom allow the use of this advanced information technology in order to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 infection?