Bengaluru: The Government of Karnataka has come up with an “interesting” solution of keeping tabs on the people who are under home quarantine.
People who have returned from abroad are required to stay in home quarantine for 14 days, as part of the precautionary measures taken by the government to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Apart from getting a stamp on the hand with the quarantine details, notices stuck outside their homes and their details being uploaded on a government website for all the world to see, foreign returnees now have to send selfies to the government.
According to a report by TNM, on Monday, March 30, a press release signed by Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, stated that all those who are under home quarantine must “send their selfie to Government every 1 hour from home”. This is to be done for the entire duration of the quarantine, which is 14 days.
They are exempted from sending selfies only when they are sleeping, which is from 10 PM to 7 AM.
The release also warns that failure to follow this order will land them in mass quarantine centres.
According to the release, “Selfie or photo contains GPS coordinates. So the location of the sender gets known.”
It added that all photos will be processed by the government’s “Photo Verification Team”. “So, if wrong photos are sent then also defaulters will be shifted to Mass Quarantine,” it said adding that government quarantine check teams will also use the app to take click their photos.
Those under self quarantine are required to download the app from the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bmc.qrtnwatch
