Those who break compulsory home quarantine rules will be asked to wear electronic wristbands starting Monday, authorities said Friday, as part of efforts to curb violations.

Due to privacy concerns, wearing it will not be mandatory, raising questions over the effectiveness of the policy.

Violators who do not agree to wearing the location-tracking wristbands will be required to stay at state facilities during quarantine, instead of at their homes, the authorities said. They must also pay for the accommodation -- about 100,000 won per day.

The Bluetooth-based wristband is connected to the mobile application for people in quarantine. It triggers an alarm and alerts authorities when the wristband moves more than 20 meters from the smartphone.

Those leaving the confines of their homes or not picking up phone calls from municipal workers are considered in violation of self-quarantine rules. When this happens, officials and police officers are mobilized to track down the wearer.

Currently, those who have come into contact with confirmed patients or those at risk of being infected -- such as people who recently returned to Korea -- are ordered to quarantine themselves.

A municipal worker assigned to each person in quarantine checks their health status on a daily basis and delivers necessities.

The number of people in quarantine shot up to some 60,000 on April 14 as more Koreans returned home from overseas in the face of the global pandemic, but it fell to 46,348 as of Wednesday.

A movement-detecting function will be added to the current mobile application too, the authorities said Friday.

When people in self-quarantine fail to check a message that is sent to their phones when the phones do not move for a certain amount of time, municipal workers can call them to check where they are.

As of Monday, there were 244 people who violated the self-quarantine rules, according to government data.

In some cases, people in home quarantine have been caught leaving their homes without their smartphones or disabling location tracking on their devices in an attempt to avoid scrutiny from the government.


By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)