Coronavirus: Quarantine breakers to wear tracking wristbands

SEOUL • South Korea yesterday said people who violate quarantine orders will be required to wear tracking wristbands.

This comes after a large number of people were found to have broken self-quarantine rules.

The plan will take off within two weeks, said Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun. "After deep consideration, the government has decided to put electronic wristbands on people who violate self-isolation rules, such as going outside without notice and not answering phone calls," Yonhap News Agency quoted him as saying.

However, as there are no laws in the country to compel those under quarantine to wear the wristbands, the health authorities will have to ask violators' permission before they can actually get them to wear the device.

As of last Thursday, over 54,000 people were under self-quarantine, with more than 160 caught for leaving the confines of their homes. The wristband will connect to the government's mobile app to monitor the movement of a person under quarantine. A notification will be sent to the authorities if the device is damaged.

In another development, the World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday said it was looking into reports of some Covid-19 patients testing positive again after initially testing negative for the disease while being considered for discharge, Reuters reported.

South Korean officials on Friday reported 91 patients thought cleared of Covid-19 had tested positive again.

Dr Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told a briefing that the virus may have been "reactivated" rather than the patients being re-infected.

"As Covid-19 is a new disease, we need more epidemiological data to draw any conclusions of virus shedding profile," the WHO said.