Navotas residents start using quarantine wristbands

MANILA, Philippines — Navotas has started to implement the mandatory use of quarantine wristbands that will allow monitoring of residents in lockdown areas, including COVID-19 patients under home quarantine, and their close contacts.

The use of the Quarantine Band System — or Navo Q-Band — is mandated under City Ordinance No. 2021-24, according to a statement issued by the city government on Wednesday.

More specifically, its use is required for all individuals “who are confirmed positive patients, and those who live with them, if they qualified for home quarantine; close contacts of positive cases; and those who reside in areas under granular lockdown.”

Navotas residents who live in lockdown areas have to wear white Navo Q-bands.

COVID-19 patients under home quarantine, along with those who live with them and other close contacts, have to wear pink bands. Close contacts are those who will undergo or have undergone RT-PCR test with pending results.

The Navo Q-Band system can monitor the location, health status, and infection risk of their user, which can then help the City Health Office to determine and contain virus clusters.

“The Navo Q-bands will be monitored by the Local Disaster Risk Reduction Office twice or thrice a day at random times,” the city statement said. “The tagged individuals will receive messages and they need to scan their bands as their reply.”

“They shall also respond to monitoring and tracking inquiry within 10 minutes of receiving the message. Failure to respond for at least three times in a day, without justifiable reason, is considered a violation of the quarantine band system’s implementing guidelines,” the statement added.

Only the City Health Office can remove the Q-bands from those wearing them, as unauthorized removal or tampering of bands will be considered a violation.

White Q-band wearers will be fined P1,000, P2,000, and P5,00 for the first, second, and third offense, respectively. Pink Q-band wearers will be fined P5,000 for each violation.

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