The Karnataka health department in India is using a mobile app to curb violations by people in home quarantine through a system that requires them to upload hourly selfies, which is then corroborated with the global positioning system (GPS) location of their homes.
The technological intervention was necessitated because of a large number of violations by those placed under a mandatory 14-day home quarantine.
“All persons under order of home quarantine shall send their selfie to (the) government every one hour from home,” the state government said in a circular on Monday. The selfie will be cross-checked with the GPS data to see if the person is at the address of home quarantine.
Thousands of people are currently in home quarantine in India due to the coronavirus outbreak.
People who have come from an international destination have to quarantine themselves for two weeks even if they are asymptomatic. Others who have come in touch with anyone in the former category will also have to quarantine themselves in a similar fashion.
The state government has warned that those who fail to send selfies every one hour (except sleeping time from 10pm to 7am) will be sent to mass quarantine centres.
“Nobody can dodge the long arm of the law. Ten persons who were under home quarantine in #Bengaluru and escaped to their native place, were arrested and a case has been registered against them at Gurmitkal police station,” said B.H. Anil Kumar, commissioner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP, the city civic body) posted on Twitter.
