IIT Bombay launches ‘CORONTINE’ to track people escaping quarantine
In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has developed a platform called CORONTINE to track individuals running away from quarantine. These people could COVID-19 positive and asymptomatic carriers. The institute stated that this CORONTINE platform can help authorities to register and track the people to check if they constrain to their quarantine.
People who had traveled abroad since end of February 2020 had been recommended home quarantine for a minimum of 14 days to see if they start showing any of COVID-19 signs and symptoms like fever, dry cough, shortness of breath and sore throat.
The people who came in contact with the abroad returnees are also advised to be in self-quarantine.
The main source of problems for the medical community worldwide is the asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19. In India several cases were identified where such individuals left quarantine and mingled with the public, raising the potential risk of community transmission.
The application permits to geo-fence and if the person moves out of the quarantined zone-the application generates alerts including text messages and e-mails automatically. The CORONTINE launched by IIT Bombay provisions for arranging
areas into regions and a number of various other such features. The institute claimed that it is customizable as per the agencies’ needs.This application was developed by a team lead by professors Ganesh Ramakrishnan and Manjesh Hanawal, IIT Bombay.
When this application is installed on the mobile phone of a suspected person by an authorized person (for instance, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company), if he/she leaves the designated home and moves outside, alerts are sent to the authorities. Authorities can then track these people and take necessary action.
The city and state agencies monitoring the COVID-19 outbreak throughout the country has been welcomed by IIT Bombay to seek their assistance.
The access to the full features is only given to the authorized individual who can log in as an admin to the CORONTINE.
979 positive COVID-19 cases and 25 deaths have been reported in India until now. The majority of the cases have been reported from the people having a travel history to COVID-19 hit countries.
Author: Sruthi S
