Turkey will launch a mobile application to track coronavirus patients and those they have been in contact with to ensure they remain at home in self-isolation or quarantine.
The application, named the “Pandemic Isolation Tracking Project”, is being developed by the national health ministry to stem the spread of the novel virus.
Turkey confirmed Thursday that 96 more people died from the coronavirus in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 908.
If an individual goes outside, they will receive a text warning and will be contacted with an automatic call asking them to return home. If the individual repeatedly violates the rule, the police will be notified and they will face the “necessary administrative measures and sanctions” but the government did not give details of what these might be.
The government officials said in a statement that data obtained from the app “would not be used for any other purpose than to fight against the pandemic and when the pandemic risk had ended, it would be destroyed.”
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases surged to 42,282 as 4,056 more people tested positive for the virus, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told on Twitter.
So far, a total of 2,142 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals, Koca said.
