Karnataka's Quarantine Watch app may be back to monitor international travellers

The Quarantine Watch app of the Karnataka government may make a comeback as the state Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee has recommended that all home quarantine measures that were in place before have to make a come back in view of the Omicron variant, to monitor international travellers from affected countries.

More than three crore people have been traced on the app throughout the pandemic to enforce home quarantine. More than 1.5 crore primary and secondary contacts were also traced using the app. Henceforth, all international travellers irrespective of which country they arrive from, have to be in home quarantine for seven days if they test Covid negative.

Munish Moudgil who headed the state Covid-19 war room during both the Covid waves was one of the key figures in developing the app. There were at least 40,000 personnel involved in home quarantine teams that went to door-to-door to check compliance.

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In March 2020, when the app was launched, all international travellers who landed in the Kempegowda International Airport, were required to download the app along with the Arogya Setu app. "There is just no other way to enforce home quarantine. There were a lot of personnel going house-to-house clicking pictures if someone breaches quarantine," he said.

Initially, FIRs were registered against those who breached the quarantine.

"In the beginning, those in home quarantine were supposed to send a selfie every hour, failing which they would be shifted to institutional quarantine. Around 60% of the people complied. Thereafter, we changed the policy where our staff would visit homes thrice a week and click pictures," Moudgil said.

Every day 5,000 to 10,000 violations were found but no action was taken against any of them.

"No case was booked against them. The home quarantine checks continued right up to the tail end of the second Covid wave. Now the practice has been abandoned as the teams have been disbanded. If an order is passed, the protocols can be reinforced. Everybody will be called back from their regular duties as and when the quarantines are ordered," he added.

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