Israel to track mobile phones of those infected with Covid-19

The Israeli government began deploying mobile phone-monitoring technology against the coronavirus yesterday, and issued directives urging people not to leave home.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approved emergency regulations that will enable the Shin Bet internal security service to tap into cellular data to retrace the movements of people infected.

The data, customarily used for anti-terrorism, will be used by the health ministry to locate and alert those who have been in their vicinity, the government said.

Such monitoring would normally require parliamentary ratification and judicial oversight. Mr Netanyahu circumvented the process by invoking the emergency orders.

In a separate move, the health ministry published new directives telling people to largely remain at home.

The directives added beaches and parks to a list of places, including schools, shopping malls, restaurants and theatres, that have been closed to the public. No more than 10 people are supposed to gather together.

But it said Israelis could still go to work - many businesses are operating with reduced staff - shop for food and medicine, exercise outdoors and walk their dogs.

"Contact between people should be limited and they should stay two metres apart," the ministry said.

The use of anti-terrorism technology to track infected people and anyone with whom they have come in contact drew criticism from civil rights groups.

Israeli authorities said the cyber monitoring, in effect for two weeks, was aimed at halting the spread of the virus and would ultimately be deleted.

But the Association for Civil Rights in Israel called the move "a dangerous precedent and a slippery slope".