Israel fighting coronavirus with cell phone data

Israel fighting coronavirus with cell phone data

JERUSALEM — Israel plans to combat the coronavirus outbreak via the cyber-monitoring of its citizens, according to Reuters.

The New York Times reports the country will monitor cell phones to track people with COVID-19 and those who have come into close contact with them.

The Israeli government will comb through the geolocation data gathered from the country's telecommunications providers to pinpoint those affected.

This will then be used to track the history of the infected person's movements and to identify potentially infected individuals.

Once identified, those suspected of catching the virus will receive a message telling them to self isolate immediately.

According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, there are 324 cases of the virus in Israel, 41 in Palestine and none in the Gaza Strip.