Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has built a platform called CORONTINE to track people escaping quarantine. These individuals could +ve asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19.

In a statement, the institute said, this platform can help authorities to register and track the individuals to check if they confine to their quarantined zones.

Individuals who had travelled abroad since February 2020 end had been advised home quarantine for a minimum of 14 days to see if they develop COVID-19 symptoms like fever, dry cough, sore throat and shortness of breath.

The self-quarantine was not just for those who travelled abroad, but also for the people they came in contact with after returning including friends and relatives.

Asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 have been a cause of concern for the medical community globally. There have been several cases in India where such people escaped quarantine and mingled with the general public, increasing the potential risk of community transmission of COVID-19.

CORONTINE allows to geo-fence and automatically generate alerts including text messages and emails if users move out of the quarantined zone. The CORONTINE platform provisions for organising zones into regions and several other such features. The institute said that it is customisable to the needs of the agencies.

A team lead by professors Ganesh Ramakrishnan and Manjesh Hanawal of IIT Bombay has developed this application.

Once this application is installed on the mobile phone of a suspected person by an authorised person (for example, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation), if he/she leaves the designated home and moves outside alerts are sent.

Authorities can then track these individuals and take necessary action.

IIT Bombay has invited both the city and state agencies across the country monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak to seek their help.

Only an authorised person can log in as admin to access the full features of the CORONTINE platform.

India has reported 979 positive COVID-19 cases and 25 deaths so far. A majority of the cases have been reported among people having travelled abroad.