Published 13:12 IST, March 31st 2020
Coronavirus: Step 100m out of your quarantine zone, Andhra Pradesh govt will call you
Andhra Pradesh government has come out with a unique measure to track people under quarantine. It is resorting to digital means to keep its citizens safe
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Andhra Pradesh government has come out with a unique measure to track people under quarantine. It is resorting to digital means to keep its citizens safe from the spread of coronavirus. What's more, other states are ready to emulate the same system soon.
The state government is using two unique tools developed by the State Disaster Management Authority with the help of other agencies to :
1) Track each person in-home quarantine in real-time.
2) To track the travel history of positive cases.
Here's how this system works
- The first tool which is called the Covid Alerting Tracking System is being used by the authorities to track over 25,000 people placed under home quarantine. Telecomm service providers are using the mobile phone numbers to track the realtime location of those quarantined and is providing the data to the government.
- The authorities already have a database of mobile numbers of all these 25,000 people. Taking the base location as the location of the respective person's residence, a tool is equipped to alert the 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 then reach out to the violator asking him to get back and do the needful.
- If the violator refuses to do so, the matter is escalated and the state authorities then jump into action.
This way, the authorities are ensuring that each one of those quarantined abides by the norms.
The second tool which is being used by the authorities is to track the travel history of all the corona virus-positive cases using the same data and mobile tower signals. With the help of the patient's phone number and service providers, authorities are gathering details of the locations the patient has been to.
Upon getting all the locations, the government is narrowing down those patients who have spent at least 15 minutes in one place. This helps the authorities track local transmission, setup red zones within a 2-3 km radius and sanitize the area.
The authorities have already mapped all the locations visited by the 20 odd positive cases in the state.
Other states to follow
Sources tell us that other states like Telangana, Bihar and Odisha are also mulling over following this method and use the same tools to curb the spread of Corona in their respective states.
13:12 IST, March 31st 2020