KUCHING, March 26: The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee can now monitor the status of arrivals at all Sarawak’s Points of Entry (POE) with QR-coded wristbands.
Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) in a statement today announced the roll-out of the digital surveillance solution to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the state.
On top of the mandatory health declaration, approved persons entering Sarawak will be issued a QR-coded wristband based on the categories they fall under.
These categories are known as Person Under Investigation (PUI) and 14-day Stay Home Notice (SHN).
“There are two within the PUI categories — Home Quarantine and Hospital Quarantine. On a twice-daily basis, wearers are required to report their situation by scanning their wristband QR code to submit a set of information. Data collated will allow the State Disaster Management Committee to make informed decisions as well as to conduct random checks on the wearers,” SMA general manager Dr Zaidi Razak revealed.
The wearers’ location will enable the State Disaster Management Committee to establish hotspots, a key strategy to isolate further spread of the disease.
Similar tracker systems have been deployed in China, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong where the data collected was crucial to manage the shape and evolution of responses to the virus.
“We are confident that this system will make the task of managing the outbreak (more) effective and timely 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,” Dr Zaidi asserted.
The statement also disclosed the State Disaster Management Committee had earlier enlisted SMA to develop a digital system to track any person who is undergoing self-quarantine for Covid-19.
Ultimately, this solution will be integrated into the ‘Permission to Enter/Exit’ system to effectively monitor Sarawak’s POEs. — DayakDaily
