Bengaluru: To tackle the menace of quarantine violations and also to improve monitoring, the Karnataka government has directed those home-quarantined for suspected coronavirus infection and patients in isolation to send their selfies every hour.
People should use The Quarantine Watch mobile application developed the state revenue department to send the selfies.
The government warned the home quarantined people that they will be sent to mass quarantine centres if they violate the rule.
In a press release, Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar directed all home quarantined persons to enrol themselves and send their selfies on an hourly basis.
"All persons under the order of Home Quarantine shall send their selfie to government every one hour from home," Sudhakar said in a press release.
The selfie sent from the Quarantine Watch contains GSP coordinates, which makes the location of the person known.
"If the home-quarantined person fails to send selfie every hour (except sleeping time from 10 pm to 7 am), then they are liable to be shifted to the mass quarantine centre," the minister said in the statement.
Even those sending wrong pictures to mislead the team monitoring them will be shifted to the mass quarantine.
The government's quarantine check team, during house-to-house visits, will use the application and click photos of home quarantined persons and send it to the authorities.
The decision comes following complaints that home quarantined persons were violating regulations and roaming around freely ignoring government directions.