COVID-19: Mobile app to track home quarantined people in Chandigarh

Home quarantined people in Chandigarh will be tracked by a mobile app launched by the union territory administration to ensure COVID-19 norms are being followed.

The app -- CVD Tracker -- has been developed to identify and geo-fence specific areas around people placed under quarantine. It will be mandatory for people under quarantine to download the application on their mobile phones, an official said.

"Every quarantined user of the app will be fenced within 50-metre radius of his place of quarantine and the quarantined user will have to upload a selfie every hour. The system will match their quarantined location and the location from where they uploaded the selfie," the official said.

If any quarantined app-user breaches the geo-fence, the administration will get an alert in the control room and the user will get a warning message, the official said, adding strict action in the form of FIR under relevant provisions of law will be taken against the violators.

The administration's control room will be alerted even in case the phone is turned off and penal action will be taken against the user. A 24x7 control room with a dedicated team has been set up to monitor the quarantined persons.

"The number of quarantined people may increase in the future and this app will make it easier for the health and police departments to track the quarantined people through their GPS location. 

"Any lapse or unauthorized movement will be immediately alerted to both the respective SDM, the police as well as the person concerned. Strict action will be taken against the violators," said Sub Divisional Magistrate, Department of Information Technology, Nazuk Kumar. 

Image: Representational