Prime Minister Gaston Browne said the health authorities were facing some difficulties with the tracking bracelets that the government acquired to monitor people in quarantine.
He told Pointe Fm on Saturday that the authorities are making some adjustments to the devices before putting them into use.
“There are some little technological glitches and we remain hopeful that early next week that we should commence the use of those bracelets”
According to the amended health regulations the electronic devices will be used to monitor “whether the person has left the designated quarantine area and the health status of the person”.
“It is important that we are able to have this tracking device, especially for our returning nationals. We have said repeatedly that they’re the ones who would have accounted for most of the domestic spread and you know domestic- spread sometimes almost invariably end up with community-spread”, the Prime Minister said.
“If we are going to control domestic-spread and make sure that it does not transition into community spread then we need to have a better monitoring mechanism. That is why the bracelets are very important”, he added.
PM Browne acknowledged that “there are some people who want to argue that it’s unconstitutional and so on. I just want to remind them here that what we are trying to do is protect lives and to protect livelihoods and I’m asking for the full cooperation of all citizens and all residents.”
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Tax dollars being wasted.
The bracelets are a blatant violation of personal privacy.
24 hour security guards at the quarantine facilities will help to deter any violations.
Boss liberties according to the constitution can be taken away (suspended) if its felt there is a national emergency which dictates this, see chapter 16 entitled “Derogations from fundamental rights and freedoms under emergency powers.”
No one should take this government seriously as they never get anything right the first time. I hope the people’s money wasn’t spent to acquire them as we may soon hear that they do not work. Maybe they are another aid from a certain country.
Well, if they had chosen the tried and proven technology used in Hong King and Taiwan as I happen to know was offered then they would not find themselves with “technological challenges”. This is a a public health crisis, not a theoretical experiment. We’re gonna end up at the bottom of the pile before they wake up and get it right. If they continue to try to recreate the wheel then this will forever be the outcome.
They probably got them from someone who paid a kickback. Do they care whether they get value for Antigua’s money? Just think of the ebooks scandal.
Beware of the use of ’emergency powers’. They inevitably lead to tyrannical dictatorship. They already have suspiciously gone of for far too long.
Where is our bar associations objections to this dangerous situation? Why has no one filed a class action court case?
Are there no patriots in Antigua?
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