Coronavirus: CMP using app to monitor people in home quarantine

Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) has started using an app and mobile tracking services to monitor people during their time in home-quarantine, in an effort to control the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The app, “Stay Home, Stay Safe”, uses cellphone location data to notify police if a person breaches his/her mandatory 14-day quarantine.

An alert trigger system also warns people in quarantine if they are venturing too far from their homes.

The brand new initiative was introduced to reduce the hassle and effectively monitor people during their time in home-quarantine, which has proved to be a challenging task for civil administration across the districts.

The app will also minimize the risk of the police personnel contracting the virus from potential coronavirus patients.

Initially, the new location-tracking system has been implemented in areas under 16 police stations in the port city. Currently, 41 people under mandatory 14-day home quarantine are being monitored through the app.

Inovace Technologies, a recent tech startup in Bangladesh, focusing especially on Embedded Systems Design and Software Development, has developed the app and is providing the necessary tech support free of cost.

Governments all around the world are relying on mobile carrier data to track everything from patients who should be isolated to how well people are following limited-movement edicts, as the novel coronavirus continues to spread around the world.

On Wednesday, three people had tested positive for Covid-19, taking the number of confirmed cases in the port city to five.