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Surveillance cameras installed in homes of quarantined
Thu Apr 10 2003 21:31:12 ET
Singapore (dpa) - Surveillance cameras have been installed in the homes of people placed under quarantine in Singapore after 12 flouted the orders despite having come into contact with people diagnosed with a deadly pneumonia-like virus, the Health Ministry said Friday.
Those ordered quarantined must report in front of the camera several times a day.
If they are not at home when health-care workers check, they will then be forced to wear an electronic tag on their wrist under the latest restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The tags are linked to a telephone line and alert the authorities if the quarantined leave their homes or try to break the tag.
The government had to resort to such measures because several people ordered to stay at home did not, the ministry said.
Private security officers served quarantine orders to 200 people on Thursday and installed the electronic picture cameras at the homes of all 490.
The total number diagnosed with the lethal illness has hit 133. Nine have died in the city-state.
The ministry said 12 people broke home quarantine orders since they were started March 25. They are required to stay in their homes for 10 days.
``This irresponsible behaviour presents not just a risk to the public but can also cause other hospitals to become contaminated with SARS,'' said Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang.
``If you have been given a home quarantine order, then abide by it,'' he added.
In one case, a woman under stay-home orders came down with a fever and went to see her general practitioner without revealing she was under quarantine, the ministry said.
Two days later, when her fever had not gone down, her relatives broke their quarantine and brought her to the National University Hospital (NUH) instead of using the ambulance service to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the only one designated to treat SARS patients.
She is now down with SARS and confined in NUH's intensive care unit because she is too sick to be transferred. Her husband was diagnosed with SARS Thursday.
The cameras can be switched on and off by users to maintain their privacy.
When health officials call, the quarantined person must switch on the camera and stand in front of it.
Breaking a quarantine order for the first time can result in a 5,000-Singapore-dollar (2,840-U.S.) fine. A repeat offender can be fined 10,000 Singapore dollars or jailed for six months.
Starting Friday, a 10-day quarantine will be slapped on all new foreign workers entering Singapore from SARS-hit countries.
The quarantine will be imposed on work-permit and employment-pass holders coming into the city-state from the World Health Organization's (WHO's) list of countries affected by SARS.
These include China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and Canada.
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R. A. Hettinga