Karnataka, Tamil Nadu monitoring COVID-19 quarantines through app

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have developed mobile applications for monitoring people under quarantine and inform their contacts about the same to check the spread of coronavirus.

The central government and other state governments are also leveraging technology to control the pandemic.

"We have developed the app and it will be available on Google Playstore within a couple of days. It is a must for those people in the home quarantine to download this app and keep it active all the time. If they don't follow it then they will be brought to mass quarantine," Munish Moudgil, secretary of COVID-19 War Room, Karnataka told PTI.

According to Corona Watch App details submitted on Google Playstore, it will show locations of corona affected patients and their movement history of 14 days that can be used by the public to keep a check on their movement also.

If other people on the app find rule violation by a quarantined person, then they can call numbers provided by state government for action.

Moudgil said the person cannot delete or manipulate the app during the quarantine period as the state government will monitor it continuously.

"The person will also need to click his photo everyday and submit. We have details of all the people in the quarantine list. A message will be sent out to them once the app is live for download. We also have a dedicated team in place to verify photos as well," he said.

The Karnataka government is asking primary and secondary contact of the person testing positive to go for home quarantine.

"The number keeps changing everyday. As on date, we have around 20,000 people in home quarantine across the state," Moudgil said.

The Tamil Nadu government has also developed the COVID-19 Quarantine Monitor Tamil Nadu app on similar lines.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Friday asked all the states to effectively monitor 15 lakh international air passengers who came from January 18 to March 23. He said that there appears to be a gap between the actual monitoring for COVID-19 and the total arrivals.

In a letter to chief secretaries of all states and Union territories, Gauba said such a gap in monitoring of international passengers may seriously jeopardise the efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, given that many amongst the persons who have tested positive for the virus so far in India have a history of international travel.

Some other state governments like Kerala and Punjab have developed app for people to get access to services being provided to coronavirus victims, advisories and precautions.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT is also testing an app to monitor coronavirus patients but it is more about feedback on their treatment and status thereafter. A ministry official said details will be shared once the app is formally launched.

Meity's MyGov department has started information sharing on social media platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp. It has also launched a channel on instant messaging app Telegram which can be accessed by an unlimited number of people.