How is the Government tracking people infected with Covid-19?

The Central Government has released an official Covid-19 tracker app i.e. the Aarogya Setu app. It tracks  community transmission and traces the contact and travel history of individuals who are quarantined, using both location data and Bluetooth-based proximity tracking on users’ phones. This is one means of contact tracing.

Certain states also have applications that track  the mobiles of people who are under quarantine. Some examples of such apps are Quarantine Watch by the Government of Karnataka, SMC COVID-19 Tracker by the Surat Municipal Corporation, Gujarat,  Mahakavach by the Government of Maharashtra, etc.

The patient’s health also gets monitored regularly by the District Surveillance Officer at a district level, who facilitates further follow up by the surveillance teams. The health status of those under home isolation is monitored by the field staff/surveillance teams through personal visits along with a dedicated call center to follow up with the patients on a daily basis. The clinical status of each case is also recorded by the field staff/call center (body temperature, pulse rate and oxygen saturation)¹.

1. Revised guidelines for Home Isolation of very mild/pre-symptomatic/asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, accessed at https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/RevisedHomeIsolationGuidelines.pdf [↩]