Czech Republic to Start “Smart Quarantine” in South Moravia. How Does It Work?

The Czech Republic will start testing the new “smart quarantine system” to track the movements of infected citizens in South Moravia.

The monitoring system, which requires consent, will use data from mobile phones and payment cards of people who have been tested positive to find all the potential people that could be infected as a result.

How does it work?

The infected person will be asked to give informed consent. Hygienists will then track his movement based on card payments and mobile operator data from the previous five days.

Subsequently, health authorities will work to identify individuals who may have been infected by the coronavirus patient. Authorities will then immediately contact these people, who will be placed under quarantine, while medical teams will deploy to test them for Covid-19. The system will also involve the army, which will transport the necessary medical teams.

The data will remain in the system for a maximum of six hours, then deleted. Data security is also assured by running a free system for the Ministry of Health, Keboola, which manages and secures data for large companies such as banks or insurance companies.

“It will coordinate the activities of regional health offices so that we are able to achieve results. It will ensure the transport of medical teams and will provide specialized vehicles,” said Babiš.

Not only the Czech Republic

Slovakia has approved a law that allows the government to monitor the movements of those infected by the Coronavirus. The amendment will give Slovakia’s Public Health Office access to location data from the mobile phones of those quarantined, in order to try and contain the spread of the virus.

Slovak officials said that the measures were inspired by similar legislation in Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, where aggressive contact tracing has played a crucial role in slowing the spread of the virus.

Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vučić recently said last week that they were tracking people with Italian telephone numbers.

Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister, also said that the government would look into “electronic solutions” to help manage the crisis.

According to the New York Times, the UK government is building an app that would alert the people who have come in contact with someone known to have the coronavirus.