Under residence quarantine in Punjab, you may have to wear a GPS tracker wrist bracelet
11 June, 2020
The Punjab government is mulling procurement of Global Positioning Program (GPS) trackers for keeping a check up on those flouting COVID-19 home quarantine guidelines.
The trackers fitted with a SIM card can be integrated with the status government’s COVA app for tracking those residence quarantined persons who defy guidelines, putting the lives of others in danger, the official said on Wednesday.
The COVA Punjab (Corona Virus Alert) App has been produced by the state government to provide persons with preventive care information and other government advisories.
“That is a lockable GPS based tracker placed on wrists. It will give an alert if a residence quarantined person violates the guidelines by going outside,” Punjab Special Secretary cum CEO, E-Governance, Ravi Bhagat explained on Wednesday.
“It is reusable following the completion of 2 weeks of quarantine period,” he further said.
Bhagat said the issue of procuring GPS-based trackers was at the discussion level and medical department is yet to have a decision on this.
Punjab has around 20,000 active residence quarantine cases as of now. Among them are persons who've returned from other claims and several who are symptomatic.
As per guidelines, home quarantined persons must download the COVA iphone app on their cell phones so as to track their movements.
But there have been reports that lots of home quarantined people usually do not install COVA app, while some who download the application usually do not keep GPS and Bluetooth on and some keep their cell phones at homes and go outside as a way to hide their movements.
The state had previous month raised the okay for violating residence quarantine guidelines from Rs 500 to 2,000 as part of its measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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