In South Africa, the government created an official government website for COVID-19 related information, such as infection statistics, vaccine updates, and speeches from the Minister of Health and the President. The official website also provides a National Health Hotline, available through email, phone, and WhatsApp (SAcoronavirus.co.za). A text-message system and the COVID-Alert SA app, which employs bluetooth connection to communicate when a person has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, were also deployed to provide information about mitigation measures and the virus (Matamanda et al.). Both the app and text messages provide information about monitoring symptoms and accessing healthcare services (SAcoronavirus.co.za). For the most part though, much communication about COVID-19 was done through television (Wasserman). Besides these more traditional forms of communication, the South African government also recognized the potential effects of social media on misinformation, instituting punishments, such as imprisonment, for spreading misinformation and encouraging citizens to report misinformation through national WhatsApp and website platforms (Matamanda et al.).
Examples of approaches to public health communication taken by South Africa (in green) and South Korea (in blue).
South Korea also employed similar strategies to South Africa; featuring official web pages on the Ministry of Health and Welfare website, but not on a separate, dedicated website like South Africa's. Like the televised "family meetings" of the South African government, public health officials from the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would brief the public daily via television about changes in case numbers, deaths, and even the number of individuals in quarantine. South Korea also emphasized communications on a local level, inducing detailed contact tracing and updates on the status of local healthcare facilities (Choi). These measures also involved sending text messages regarding exposure to citizens, similar to in South Africa. In urban areas, signage was widely used, with signs taped in public places and banners hanging above the sidewalks.
Examples of signage used in South Korea (Choi)
Both countries needed to find a way to ensure that their people trusted the communications coming from their governments; after all, trust in the government is a key indicator of compliance to government-issued COVID-19 policies (Devermont). South Korea had already experienced issues with failing to properly communicate with its citizens previously during the MERS outbreaks, and sought to correct this during the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on transparency and coherent messages right from the start. Emphasis on presenting coherent communications boosted citizen trust in the government’s handling of the pandemic (Choi). The South African government also took measures to raise its citizens' trust and compliance with COVID policies; the President would hold regular televised addresses, known as “family meetings” (Matamanda et al.) to the public regarding lockdown levels based on current infection rates, often appealing to a sense of community (Wasserman). However, after a scandal involving the Minister of Health being arrested on corruption charges regarding a COVID-19 communication contract, trust and approval of the government’s handling of the pandemic as well as the information disseminated dropped, with 37.6% of people responding that they did not trust COVID-19 communications coming South African government on some level (Wasserman). South Africa in particular continued to struggle with trust and compliance with COVID protocols, especially with making vaccination efforts and education accessible to all, highlighted by the informal settlement studied by Matamanda et al., where over 93.40% of those surveyed did not receive education past the secondary level. Some of these participants expressed that they "disregarded some information because... we don't know the role the government has played in all this, especially with the vaccines being 'forced' upon us" (Matamanda et al.).
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