CHANDIGARH: The Haryana health department has been keeping watching the movements of Covid-19 positive cases by tracking their mobile phones. As per the procedure, Covid-19 positive cases are tracked down immediately by the authorities, if they try to move out of the quarantined area. According to Rajeev Arora, they have tracked thousands of Covid-19 patients through this methodology to contain the spread of deadly virus. He, however, confirmed that all this is done with due permission from the home department of the state and in compliance with the guidelines of the department of telecommunication (DOT).
Haryana food & drugs administration commissioner Ashok Kumar Meena, who has also been appointed nodal officer for the purpose, said that on getting details from the director general health services office about the quarantined persons required to be monitored, a request is immediately sent to home department for permission to track the specific numbers. “On getting a nod from the home department, the numbers are shared with the DOT for tracking,” Meena explained. He further stated that whenever the person under scanner moves out of the quarantine area, he is immediately caught and told to follow the 14-day quarantine protocol.
“Initially, the numbers of violators were very high but after the Covid cases realised about being tracked, the number of violations of quarantine protocol has come down. If a person continues to breach the quarantine protocol despite tracking down and advise, we register a case under the NDMA (National Disaster Management Act) against the concerned person,” he added.
When asked about shortlisting the cases for tracking, Meena said first of all they track only confirmed cases to ensure they do not spread the virus by breaching quarantine. In the second category, they are tracking primary contacts (till their testing is not done), but the numbers of such cases are comparatively low.