Pakistan’s intelligence agency to track COVID-19 patients

ISLAMABAD: The government has sought help from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) in tracking the coronavirus patients in order to curb virus which has affected more than 64,000 people in the country.

The government has asked the ISI to track and detect COVID-19 patients in the country. Although details about the project have not been released yet, two officials have maintained that the services are using phone-monitoring and geofencing systems that are employed to hunt high-value targets including homegrown and foreign militants.

Geo-fencing helps officials in tracking areas under lockdown and alerts authorities when someone leaves a specific geographic area.

Due to the stigma, lack of awareness, and fear associated with this disease, people are escaping hospitals and isolation centers. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior security official said that agencies are now ‘quite effectively’ using the technology to track coronavirus cases.

“The government has been successful in tracing even those who tested positive but went into hiding,” the security official said.

“The trace-and-track system basically helps us track the mobile phones of corona patients as well as anyone they get in touch with before of after their disappearance,” an ISI official said.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has surged to 64,028 in the country, while the death toll stands at 1317.