COVID-19 cases have sent people into a frenzy and for good reason: the virus has thousands of cases of deaths, and organizations and governments around the world are working hard to ensure that the spread is contained. Some flights have been stopped, schools have been closed and workers are being told to work from home – that is if your work allows you to execute day to day tasks from home using computer tools and the internet.
Besides China where Coronavirus was first reported, and its spread to Italy and other and European nations, COVID-19 was also reported in South Korea and in big numbers. The country has since managed to manage the situation, and the latest development from the Asian country is in the form of the closure if call centres, mainly in the city of Daegu.
The call centres will be closed until the end of March in an announcement that was made by three carriers: KT, LG Uplus and SK Telecom, based on the recommendations of Daegu’s health authorities.
Daegu is also one of the most affected areas in South Korea.
According to ZDNet, Carriers such as ST Telekom have two call centres in the city, with near 500 workers. A section of the employees are already working from home.
Others such as KT are reported to have shut down their call centres that are served by about 600 employees.
To this end, calls made from the city will be handled with chatbots. The AI-powered tools respond to queries of they are simple, and can actually be faster than people, although the tone of the callers is better perceived by another human being on the line. They offer quick fixes but as soon as things get challenging, a human staff takes over.
Nevertheless, as of today, South Korea has a little over 8000 cases of COVID-19 with 75 deaths.
