The Turkish Ministry of Health has launched a Pandemic Isolation Tracking project in order to reduce the spread of disease by tracking patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and making sure they adhere to their quarantine that has been imposed by the government.

While the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Turkey continues, the Ministry of Health has developed a project for reducing the spread of the virus by monitoring isolated patients. Citizens with COVID-19 will be tracked to make sure they remain in the government's required quarantine. If patients break the quarantine, a warning message will be sent to their mobile phones.

In addition, these patients will be instantly contacted through an automatic call and asked to return to isolation. If the disobedience continues, administrative action can be taken. Police teams will be able to find violators and confirm them with their ID.

The project has been developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) and all GSM operators after obtaining the necessary permissions within the framework of legal authority.

According to officials, the Pandemic Isolation Monitoring project will be a very effective tool in combating the COVID-19 outbreak by reducing the transmission of the virus to a large number of people. The project will be important not only for the individual but also for the safety of their relatives and for public health, they said. Furthermore, both quarantined people and regional mobility can be observed and analyzed in order to prevent further spread of the virus.

The data that will be obtained within the scope of the project will not be used for any purpose other than combating the epidemic and will be immediately destroyed when the risk ends, officials said. They went on to assure that patients’ data will be under state guarantee and the security of the system will be tightly controlled.

The Pandemic Isolation Tracking project has been developed according to Article 12 of Turkey’s Law No. 6698, the Protection of Personal Data, which foresees the obtaining of data for the purpose of protecting public health, preventive medicine, medical diagnosis, treatment and care services and envisages that qualified personal data can be processed without the explicit consent of those concerned by authorized institutions or organizations under the obligation of keeping it secret.