Andhra govt is tracking phone signals of everyone in COVID-19 home quarantine

An alert is sent to authorities if the person travels beyond a 100-metre radius from the base location, and violates the norms of home quarantine.

Coronavirus Coronavirus

The Andhra Pradesh government is using mobile tower signals to track each person in the state who is presently under home quarantine to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state government said that it is using two tools developed by the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), in coordination with other agencies to track each person under home quarantine in real time, and also track the travel history of patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

A 'COVID alerting tracking system' is in place, with which authorities are tracking over 29,000 people placed under home quarantine by monitoring the location of their numbers in real time with the help of telecom service providers and mobile tower signals.

As of Monday evening, 29,405 were under home isolation, a medical bulletin stated.

Taking the base location as the location of the respective person's residence, the system is equipped to alert district authorities if the person travels beyond a 100 metre radius from the base location, thereby violating the norms of home quarantine.

Upon receiving the alert, district authorities immediately contact the person and ask him to return home and if they refuse to do so, escalate the matter so that state authorities jump into action.

"The second tool is being used by authorities to track the travel history of all the positive cases using the same data and mobile tower signals," sources said.

With the help of the patient's phone number and details from their service providers, all of the places that the person has travelled to, from 15 days prior to being tested positive, are obtained.

Officials then narrow down the locations where the patient has spent at least 15 minutes. Accordingly, they track local transmission and also set up 'red zones' within a 2-3 km radius, where sanitation efforts are initiated.

Sources say that the state is planning to defend the move, if critics raise questions about violation of privacy, by citing provisions in Disaster Management Act 2005 and the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897.

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