Coronavirus: Octopus to provide data to University of Hong Kong researchers on city residents’ movements to check spread of Covid-19
- Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of HKU’s faculty of medicine, earlier said transport data would make it easier to track the transmission of the virus
- Octopus says the data will be only of aggregate value and will not reveal the identity of any individuals or the usage of any particular card
E-payment service provider Octopus has agreed to provide data to researchers from the University of Hong Kong studying transmission patterns of the coronavirus and the movements of city residents to boost measures to contain the disease.
The company on Thursday said it agreed to provide “aggregate statistical data relating to the usage of Octopus cards” for research projects at the request of HKU’s Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine.
Separately, the MTR Corporation said it was considering a data request related to train journeys of Hongkongers from HKU’s department of computer science.
“The corporation will be happy to contribute to the collective efforts in combating the pandemic and we hope the data would be of use to the community,” it said.
Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of HKU’s faculty of medicine and a member of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s expert panel on the pandemic, said earlier that transport data such as that of the Octopus cards would make it easier to track the transmission of the virus and identify the risk of infection in various districts.
Hong Kong is battling a second wave of Covid-19 as many infected residents return from overseas. As of Thursday afternoon, the city recorded 802 cases of infection, with four fatalities.