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UK police reported to be planning separate contact tracing system
Police forces in the UK are planning their own contact tracing system because they are concerned that giving details to the national contact tracing system would compromise undercover operations and working methods. Options under discussion include having police forces take over all contact tracing for police officers and staff or seconding staff from the NHS test and trace system to police forces. Health officials, however, say…
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In the three months from March to May 2020 the UK government awarded at least £1.7 billion in contracts to private companies, most of them without a competitive tender process under emergency procurement measures put in place in March. A quarter of the 400 contracts that government departments have published have gone to companies that have not previously carried out government work, and at least seven were worth more than £100 million. The largest that has been published was a £234 million…
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The app-based track-and-trace system that was supposed to be in place in the UK by June 1 will not be working at full speed until September or October, and the chief executive of Serco, one of the main companies contracted to deliver it, doubted the system would evolve smoothly. Scientists have said that lockdown should not be eased until the track-and-trace system is well-established. Serco is responsible for recruiting 10,000 of the 25,000 contact tracers, and is being paid an initial fee of…
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Gypsy and Traveller communities in England, especially those living on canals and waterways or in unauthorised roadside encampments, have had no access to sanitation, refuse collection, or water for drinking, cooking, showering, and washing clothes during the coronavirus lockdown. Some local authorities have directed Travellers to public toilets without hand-washing facilities, while others tried to evict them. In addition, conditions like COPD and asthma are more common in Gypsy and Traveller…
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Black, Asian, and minority ethnic people in England are 54% more likely than white people to be fined for violations of the coronavirus rules, according to an analysis of data published by the National Police Chiefs' Council showing the racial breakdown of the 13,445 fixed-penalty notices recorded between March 27 and May 11. BAME people were fined at a rate of 26 per 100,000, compared to white people at 16.8 per 100,000; the comparison raised questions as to whether the fines were fairly…
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Thermal temperature scanners, software keystroke monitors, and wearable location trackers are proliferating in US workplaces, with the data they collect outside of any of the country's electronic privacy laws. Companies report that employers are being asked to form part of the front line of contact tracing for COVID-19 and share data on a wholly new level. Even before the pandemic, employers sought to keep employee data exempt from the CCPA; privacy activists eventually won a one-year…
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The Finnish government will not move forward with its plan to oblige unsuccessful asylum seekers to wear ankle monitors, Maria Ohisalo, the Minister of the Interior, stated on Tuesday. “It’s something that’d be difficult to carry out as it’s considered in the government programme,” she said. “The conclusion drawn from the assessment is that it wouldn’t be cost-effective.”
The government programme states that a process will be initiated to amend the aliens act to lay down provisions on “…
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Greece has extended a coronavirus lockdown on its migrant camps for the fifth time. The move has prompted accusations that the government is using the pandemic to limit the migrants' movement.
The Greek Migration Ministry announced on Saturday that the country's migrant camps would remain under lockdown until at least July 19. The restrictions began over 100 days ago, on March 21.
"By a joint decision of the Ministers of Civil Protection, Health and Immigration and Asylum, the measures to…
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Domestic abuse campaigners and victims have accused the government of not valuing the lives of migrant women in forthcoming legislation on the issue.They are urging the government to make “life-saving” changes to the domestic abuse bill, which will be debated for its final stage in parliament on Monday.
A spokesperson for the Home Office called the bill “a game-changing piece of legislation that will transform how we deal with this horrific crime”, adding that the government had announced £76m…
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The Santiago Court of Appeals has ruled that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot require migrants to sign a declaration saying they agree to not return to Chile for nine years. The government is now going forward with an appeal stating that this ruling contraditcs a 2018 resolution, says the subsecretary Juan Francisco Galli.
Source: La Tercera
Writer: Juan Manuel Ojeda and Leslie Ayala
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Thousands of Muscovites ordered to download a hastily-developed app to enforce their quarantine report that they have been wrongly geolocated and fined and that the app has trapped them into compliance criteria that are impossible to meet. The app, which demands an exceptionally broad range of permission and stores the data on Moscow’s servers for a year, is compulsory for everyone with respiratory disease symptoms. Officials say it has helped keep the city’s death rate as low as 3.8%. Some…
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Russian authorities are considering introducing an app that migrant workers will be required to download when they enter the country. Leaked details indicate that the app would contain detailed biometric data, health status, police records, and a “social trustworthiness” rating. It’s unclear whether the app would access other data such as geolocation and user content. Other aspects of surveillance are also expanding in Russia, such as using Moscow’s surveillance camera system to track those…
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The findings of Freedom from Torture’s report, based on reviews of transcripts of asylum interviews carried out by the Home Office in 2017 or 2018 and a series of focus groups and interviews involving 25 torture survivors who had attended asylum interviews, shows they were often prevented from giving a full account of their experiences or denied the opportunity to explain their evidence.
The report states that some Home Office case workers were found to employ “poor questioning technique” and…
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Up to 30 charities and organisations have written to home secretary Priti Patel calling for a number of amendments on Tuesday - a year exactly until the scheme ends.
Under current arrangements, EU citizens have been told to apply by June if they wish to continue living and working in Britain.The letter said: “We are concerned that the government has not taken appropriate steps or made the adequate adjustments to the EUSS necessary to protect EU citizens and family members from Covid-19. We…
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Although the Home Office does not record ethnicity data for detainees, analysis of nationalities of those recently held within the immigration detention estate found that citizens from countries with predominantly black and brown populations are held for substantially longer periods than those from predominantly white countries.
Around a third – approximately a 1,000 – being held in immigration detention centres were freed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic to try and stop the spread of…
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Immigration rules that have left 1 million migrant workers in the UK at risk of destitution because they cannot claim universal credit should be suspended on public health grounds during the pandemic, a cross-party group of MPs has recommended.
The work and pensions select committee said the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) rule – which hit the headlines recently when Boris Johnson appeared not to be aware of its existence – meant many foreign nationals faced a choice of staying at home in…
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Excluded groups such as sex workers and asylum seekers are being left behind in the UK’s COVID-19 response as control measures amplify existing health inequalities and put life-saving advice and care further out of reach.
The closure of services and some GP registrations, a lack of access to technology, distrust and fear of authorities, unsuitable or insecure accommodation, and reduced income are among the many challenges facing people in vulnerable circumstances in England.
Doctors of…
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South America has become the scene of one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent times. The crisis involving migrants and refugees from Venezuela involves children, adolescents, and young people who have left their country of origin to settle in surrounding countries, either due to political or economic reasons, sometimes both.
This study delves into the harsh reality of children, adolescents and young migrants and refugees from Venezuela who are caught up in the economic and political…
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A mix of city data and reports from building superintendents and porters provides evidence on how New York City’s residents’ behaviour has changed during the lockdown. Among the findings so far: residents are recycling 27% more, particularly clear glass, and total garbage collected has dropped, especially in wealthy areas, where some residents left for country homes, but risen in the poorest areas. Scholars of consumption habits hope to learn more about how shutdowns affect people’s use of…
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The Delaware County of New Castle is participating in a pro-bono programme run by the Cambridge, Massachusetts start-up Biobot Analytics, which analyses sewage for the coronavirus in order to estimate the number of people infected in a particular area, hoping to use the results to make better health decisions. Wastewater epidemiology has been used in the past to combat polio. Also joining the Biobot programme are wastewater treatment plants in or near Denver, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Florida’s…
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Between March 29 and May 28, residents of Nashville, Tennessee submitted 3,748 reports of potential violations of the Safe at Home order, including locations such as restaurants, parks, churches, and funeral homes, and violations such as promoting live music while it was prohibited, or failing to wear a mask correctly. By May 11, the Metro Public Health Department had yet to issue a single citation, instead viewing complaints as an opportunity to educate businesses and individuals about how to…
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Concerns that contact tracing could expand to purposes beyond public health gained some weight when the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington told press that law enforcement was using “contact tracing” to investigate protesters arrested after the murder of George Floyd. Minnesota public health authorities found that Harrington actually meant they were engaging in the normal process of law enforcement investigations, and not, as he had implied, using data from Covid-…
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Immunity passports, under consideration in a number of countries, may violate US disability law, enable discrimination, and create a two-tiered exclusionary society. They are not really comparable to vaccination cards for diseases such as yellow fever or meningitis, which are required for entry into a number of countries or universities, because in those cases vaccines are available. Antibody testing for COVID-19, however, has many uncertainties, as the extent to which antibodies confer…
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After problems with its TraceTogether contact tracing app, Singapore is planning a comprehensive contact tracing system in which it will distribute to all its 5.7 million residents a wearable device that will identify people who have interacted with people carrying the coronavirus. The devices can be worn on a lanyard or carried in a handbag. Critics are concerned that it will be difficult to tell what the device is doing or what information it sends to back-end servers.
Source: https://mobile…
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While acknowledging the WHO’s advice that retaining antibodies to the coronavirus after recovering from COVID-19 is not yet scientifically confirmed to confer immunity, the International Air Transport Association believes that immunity passports could be important in helping air travel resume. Documented passengers could bypass many of the protective measures currently planned, which include temperature screening, physical distancing, modified boarding processes, and wearing masks.
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Italy has launched Immuni, one of the first contact tracing apps based on the Apple-Google API. The app is opt-in, and includes an explanation of the privacy and security measures in its setup. The app collects anonymously bluetooth tokens that are automatically randomised, but does not collect GPS or location data and performs all processing on the device.
Source: https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/01/italy-apple-exposure-notification-api-app/
Writer: Michael Potuck
Publication: 9 to 5 Mac
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Serbian MPs voted 155-0, with one not voting and one abstention, to lift the state of emergency that was declared on March 15 and repeal 11 emergency ordinances covering work, tax, debt, and criminal justice on the basis that the conditions for lifting it have been met. The change lifts curfews and allows businesses to reopen, but sanitary and medical measures to control the coronavirus pandemic remain in force, such as the requirement to maintain social distancing in shopping malls, cafes, and…
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The Slovak Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional parts of the newly amended telecommunication law that permitted state authorities to access telcommunications data for the purposes of contact tracing. The parliament approved the legislation in March, but the court ruled that the need for speedy solutions during the pandemic should not unintentionally erode the rule of law. The court called the provisions it struck down insufficiently clear, and lacking in safeguards against misuse. The…