Seoul (AFP)
South Korea has installed innovative bus shelters to fight against the new coronavirus, equipped with thermal cameras and ultraviolet lamps to allow their disinfection.
Ten high-tech bus stops have been installed in a northeastern district of Seoul to protect passengers from the rain, the summer heat but also the virus.
Before entering these bus shelters, travelers must stand in front of a thermal imager and the door will only open if their temperature is below 37.5 degrees Celsius.
Another camera intended for children has been installed below.
The cost of such a bus shelter is around 100 million won (71,000 euros).
Users are advised to wear a mask and to keep a distance of at least one meter from other passengers.
"We have installed all the anti-coronavirus measures we thought of," Kim Hwang-yun, one of the managers of the Smart Shelter project, told AFP.
Since their installation last week, approximately 300 to 400 people have used each of these bus shelters daily, Kim said.
"I really feel safe here because I know that the people around me have been temperature controlled just like me," Kim Ju-li, a 49-year-old housewife, told AFP. for the first time such a bus stop.
South Korea was in February the second country most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, after China where the coronavirus had appeared. But the South Korean authorities have managed to bring the situation under control through a strategy of testing and tracing contacts of infected people, without resorting to compulsory confinement.
South Korea is often cited as a model in the management of this health crisis, with its "screening, testing and treatment" program.
© 2020 AFP