Sarawak rolls out QR wristbands to monitor quarantined people

CORONAVIRUS | Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) today announces the roll-out of a digital surveillance solution to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the state, which they hailed as a tremendous feat since it only took three days to develop.

In a statement released today, SMA said the solution would give the state disaster management committee the scalable capability to monitor this form of infectious disease at all Sarawak’s Points of Entry (POEs).

“On top of the mandatory health declaration, approved persons entering Sarawak will be issued a QR-coded wristband (which they must wear) based on the categories they fall under. These categories are known as Person Under Investigation (PUI) and 14-day Stay Home Notice (SHN),” it said.

Under PUI category, the wearers are those placed under home quarantine or hospital quarantine and on a twice-daily basis, they are required to report their situation by scanning their wristband’s QR code to submit a set of information.

“The data collated will allow the state disaster management committee to make informed decisions as well as to conduct random checks on the wearers. 

"The wearers’ location will enable us to establish hotspots, a key strategy to isolate further spread of the disease,” it said.

Variations of the tracker system had been deployed in China, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong where the data collected was crucial to manage the shape and evolution of the virus.

Meanwhile, SMA’s general manager Zaidi Razak said they were confident that this system would make the task of managing the outbreak effectively and in a timely manner given the vastness of Sarawak.

“With the time frame given, the development team has made tremendous achievement within a three-day period to come up with such a solution,” he added.

The state disaster management committee had earlier enlisted SMA to develop a digital system to track anyone undergoing self-quarantine for Covid-19, which could also be used at medical centres designated to handle patients with the disease. - Bernama