New program tracks quarantining Australians via app, requires selfies for proof
WASHINGTON (TND) — Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, has begun piloting a home quarantine tracking program that randomly calls those quarantining at home and requests a selfie from them within five minutes in order to track their location via GPS.
Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley announced the launch of the new “home quarantine check-in process” during a press conference Sept. 28. Foley said the new app-based program will “add to the tools as to how our quarantining system can make sure that people are where they’re meant to be when they’re meant to be.”
Foley said the new program is directed at Victorians coming back from overseas travel “sooner rather than later as part of the national plan.”
The app randomly sends messages or phone calls to participants and requests a rapid response selfie from them in order to track their location via GPS.
Participants will receive advice via the smartphone app as to their obligation at random times to provide the selfie back to the public health teams. Should that not be responded to in a period of time, follow up calls or visits are made so as to make sure that the person is where they should be,” Foley explained.
The Atlantic has called Australia’s federal and state COVID-19 restrictions on its citizens “draconian.”
Roughly four months ago, Victoria began requiring retail settings like grocery stores to implement the Victorian government’s COVID QR-code check-in app, called Service Victoria. Workplaces are also required to use the app.
In the midst of surging vaccination rates, Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared the country has got to “move forward” and live with the virus like any other infectious disease. “This is not a sustainable way to live in this country,” Morrison reportedly said when defending the country’s shift towards a more long-term COVID-19 strategy.
