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This is how the new covid-19 tracking system works in Mexico City

2020-11-18T09:57:54.116Z


Citizens must register with a QR code to enter cafes, museums, offices, gyms, cinemas, theaters or shopping centers


Spectators at the Cineteca in Mexico City, in August.Nayeli Cruz / EL PAIS

The Government of Mexico City will launch a COVID-19 infection tracking system this week due to the increase in hospitalizations in the capital, which is now on the verge of maximum alert.

Cafes, museums, offices, gyms, cinemas, theaters or shops in the capital must put a QR code at the entrance that people will have to scan with their mobile to access.

The goal: if a person tests positive for covid-19 and was in one of these closed spaces with others, the authorities will be able to trace those contacts and stop the chain of possible infections.

Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand or Singapore, for example, have already launched

national

apps

using QR codes to trace these possible chains of infections.

The method is known as

presence tracking.

In this case, it is not an application, but the information will go to a database of the Digital Agency for Public Innovation.

Do you respect the privacy of users?

What personal data will the Government obtain?

What happens if someone tests positive?

These are some clues about the new measure.

Why will it be implemented?

The number of hospitalizations for covid-19 in the capital, where more than 16,400 people have died and 180,200 have been infected with coronavirus, increased in recent weeks, according to the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum, which reported last Friday of "a change of trend ”and announced more restrictive measures to stop the infections.

Among them, the implementation of QR codes to access closed spaces.

It will be, according to the authorities, one more preventive measure, such as the use of face masks, the application of sanitizing gel and temperature control.

How is it going to work?

When accessing closed spaces, such as cafes, museums, offices, gyms, cinemas, theaters or shopping centers, people must scan with their mobile a QR code that will be at the entrance of each establishment, next to the sanitary filter, and that will be unique for each location.

QR codes are an evolution of the traditional barcode and have information that can be read with the mobile.

Most of the smartphones of the last five years have a reader in the camera, although there are also

apps

to read these codes.

When scanning the code, the user will access a form and only have to enter their phone number.

This information will go to a database of the Digital Agency for Public Innovation that will be controlled daily.

What personal data will the Government collect?

The director general of Digital Government of the Digital Agency for Public Innovation (ADIP), Eduardo Clark, ensures that the only data that the Government will collect will be the person's phone number, an identifier of the business they have entered and the exact time access.

“We do not know in real time where the person is moving or who he is.

The only thing we know is that the person arrived at a place, registered and entered.

And we can later check if there were positive people in that place ”.

This system requires "very little" personal information, Clark explains, to minimize risk.

"The database does not bring anything by which they can identify you.

Your phone is not saved, but a cryptographic transformation of your number, which only we have the key to decrypt ”, he clarifies.

What will happen if someone is positive?

Suppose that Fernanda tests positive for covid-19 and was, for example, on Friday at 5:00 p.m. in the Cineteca.

The authorities, then, will be able to cross the information of the infected person with the information of the spectators who were in that cinema that day an hour before and up to an hour after Fernanda was there.

They will do the same with all the places the infected person has been in the last two weeks.

The Digital Agency for Public Innovation will not have information about which are each of those places: it will not know if it was the Cineteca or the Museum of Anthropology.

You will only know that you made visits to different establishments at certain times, and you will be able to know what other people were there.

Those possible infected will be notified with a text message with information and a recommendation to take a free test if they have symptoms.

In the following days, Locatel telemarketers will contact them.

Clark estimates that with this program the average number of tests performed in the capital will double and reach 10,000 a day.

Is it mandatory to register?

It is mandatory to enter a closed space in which the stay exceeds 15 minutes.

The measure, however, will not be implemented in all enclosed spaces.

Shops like Oxxo or 7eleven, where the permanence is supposed to be a few minutes, or in large supermarkets, with large surfaces, are exempt, for example.

“The activities that we are really trying to monitor are activities that are to some extent non-essential.

They are things that are relatively optional: I can decide not to go to the gym or to the movies ”, clarifies Clark.

"We will try to continue allowing those activities that are very important to many people to continue operating, but we ask that they cooperate," he says.

What if I don't have a phone that reads QR code?

Registration will be through a QR code or by SMS.

Anyone who is unwilling or unable to scan the code can send a free text message to 51515 with nine digits provided by the establishment.

Minor children and older adults who do not have a way to register are not required to do so.

Clark appeals to "common sense": "If a person comes who does not have a cell phone, we do not want discrimination."

How long will the measure be in progress?

Establishments will be able to register and download their QR code from this Wednesday on the sanitary measures page.

It is mandatory to print it and place it at the entrance.

The Administrative Verification Institute (INVEA) will carry out verifications starting next Monday and, in case of non-compliance, the premises will be suspended.

The City Government has not established a deadline for the application of the measure.

As with the rest of the policies related to covid-19, every Friday the Head of Government and her team will communicate if the tracking of cases through QR codes will continue the following week.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-11-18

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