HK requires tracking bracelets for home quarantined individuals

Quarantined residents will have to wear the bracelets starting 15 July.

Hong Kong will enforce tighter home isolation starting 15 July, requiring quarantined individuals to wear a tracking bracelet.

Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau said the tracking bracelet will enhance the effectiveness of the home quarantine arrangement.

According to Lo, there are 12,000 individuals undergoing home quarantine in Hong Kong.

Apart from requiring a tracking bracelet, the health secretary said the government will also introduce a “health code” system in its “LeaveHomeSafe” mobile app.

Under the system, individuals will be issued either a red or yellow code.

Red code will be given to those who will test positive for COVID via nucleic acid tests.

Whilst yellow code will be issued for inbound travellers placed under health observation who are allowed to leave their homes but should avoid high-risk places (restaurants) or places with high-risk groups (hospitals and elderly homes).

“By giving them a tracking bracelet and by giving them the red code, we hope that we will be able to enforce the home quarantine in a more effective way and try to prevent these people from causing community outbreaks,” Lo said.

“So by reducing the chance of them getting into the community, we will be able to reduce the transmission from our current level and get to a lower transmission rate of below one and with that, we will be able to reduce the total number of cases and protect our healthcare system,” he added.