Hong Kong will establish this week a surveillance system based on a bracelet to control the movements of those infected by covid who have to remain in isolation in their homes, local media reported today.The plan, unveiled on Monday by the former British colony's new health secretary, Lo Chung-mau, will require patients given permission to self-isolate at home rather than in government quarantine centers to wear an electronic bracelet that will monitor their movements. , according to the local newspaper South China Morning Post."We all agree that those who have covid should not go out and harm the rest of the population," Lo said.The territory follows a zero tolerance policy against the coronavirus similar to that in force in mainland China and includes the isolation of all those infected in specialized facilities or in their homes.However, experts quoted by the newspaper cast doubt on the suitability of these devices: "How will the elderly who cannot leave their homes buy food for several days? What will happen when the heads of families cannot go to work if their job doesn't allow them to work from home?" asks Dr Joseph Tsang of the Hong Kong Medical Association.The bracelet will collect information about the location of its wearers through Bluetooth signals, wireless networks or GPS.There is, however, uncertainty about the accuracy of the wristbands: "Are they effective enough to detect someone leaving their 16th-floor apartment to go down to the third floor?" Tsang questioned, warning that some patients might simply "take them off and hang them in your house" before leaving.How Hong Kong's new health code system for Covid cases will affect residents https://t.co/vPs1U91qIHThe honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, Francis Fong Po-kiu, warned in the newspaper that "the margin of error of the bracelets could range between 50 and 100 meters."It is not the first time that the Hong Kong authorities have resorted to this type of strategy to monitor the movements of groups of people at risk: as early as 2020, passengers arriving in the semi-autonomous city received a bracelet with a QR code that they had to scan. , a device that has evolved in these two years into bracelets capable of recording movements.Since his recent appointment on July 1, Lo has also announced his intention to establish a color system to identify a person's risk when entering public places.The method, similar to the one in force in the main cities of mainland China, is based on the "Leave Home Safe" mobile application, originally designed to show a person's vaccination status and which will show a red code in those users who have given positive for covid and yellow in those who are in a quarantine period after having arrived from abroad.Users in yellow and red will be prohibited from accessing public places classified as "high risk", although experts quoted by the local press point out the weak points of the system: "People could use a friend's code to circumvent control", they warn.Since the beginning of the pandemic, 342,359 cases of covid-19 and 9,419 deaths have been registered in Hong Kong.Any reproduction without the written permission of the company is prohibited for the purposes of article 32.1, second paragraph, of the Law on Intellectual Property.Likewise, for the purposes established in article 33.1 of the Intellectual Property Law, the company records the corresponding reservation of rights, by itself and through its editors or authors.