By Theresa Goodwin
People who are placed in quarantine will be mandated, by law, to wear COVID-19 government issued bracelets which will allow health personnel to track their movements.
Penalties will also be implemented for those who attempt to tamper with the devices. These are some of the changes that parliamentarians will be discussing on Monday when they meet to recommend further amendments to the Covid-19 regulations.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne hinted at the pending changes during his weekly radio programme on Saturday.
“They will be mandated by law to wear these bracelets so that they can be properly monitored, and of course they have to continue to monitor the other health and safety protocols that are already in place,” Browne said.
The devices are already on island and the government intends to start using them as of Tuesday after they are programmed and tested.
Further changes will also be made to the laws to deal with people who may attempt to tamper with the electronic devices.
“Anyone who tampers with these bracelets will have to pay a fine. We will make sure that these fines are hefty, not only to cover the cost of the bracelets, but also to make it prohibitive. These are measures that we have to introduce in order to ensure that we tighten the management of Covid-19 and reduce the transmission,” Browne said.
The last dashboard released by the Ministry of Health on Saturday showed that there are 141 laboratory confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Antigua, seven of which are active.
Seventy-two people are quarantining at home, while 13 are at a government facility.