It's time to track people's smartphones to ensure they self-isolate during this global pandemic, says WHO boffin

Tracking and limiting the movements of overseas travelers, and others suspected to be COVID-19 coronavirus carriers, has proved an essential tool in controlling the pandemic.

That's according to Professor Marylouise McLaws, a technical adviser to the World Health Organization's Infection Prevention and Control Global Unit.

McLaws – a professor at the University of New South Wales' School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Australia, and a member of European, US and UK epidemiology and infection control bodies – told The Register tracking played a key role in nations that were able to flatten the exponential curve of COVID-19 cases – particularly Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.

Singapore, an air travel hub in the Asia-Pacific region, has 455 confirmed COVID-19 cases and two deaths as of the weekend. Taiwan has just 195, and also two deaths.

Professor McLaws said that, in Singapore, those who may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus... continue reading at https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/23/track_phones_coronavirus_who/