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Russia has temporarily barred Chinese nationals from entering
the country to curb the spread of the virus, but has welcomed
Russians who return home with an order to spend two weeks at
home, even in the absence of symptoms.
Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said some 2,500 people who
had landed in the city from China had been ordered to go into
quarantine. To prevent them leaving their apartments, the
authorities are using facial recognition technology in the city
to catch any offenders, he said.
"Compliance with the regime is constantly monitored, including
with the help of facial recognition systems and other technical
measures," he wrote on his website.
In one case described by Sobyanin, surveillance footage showed a
woman who had returned from China leaving her apartment and
meeting friends outside. The authorities were able to track down
the taxi driver who had taken her home from the airport thanks
to video footage, Sobyanin said.
Sobyanin said the city was also forced to carry out raids
against possible carriers of the virus, something he said was
"unpleasant but necessary."
The Moscow mayor's office did not immediately reply to a request
for comment.
Sobyanin said last month that the city had begun using facial
recognition as part of its city security surveillance programme.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had not seen details of
the actions being taken in Moscow but that measures to curb the
spread of the coronavirus should not be discriminatory.
The clamp down on quarantine rules comes after a woman in St.
Petersburg staged an elaborate escape from a hospital where she
said she was being kept against her will.
The incident, which resulted in a court ordering her to return
to the quarantine facility, raised questions about the
robustness of Russia's coronavirus quarantine measures.
Russia has reported two cases of the illness - two Chinese
nationals who have since recovered and been released from
hospital, according to the authorities.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; additional reporting by
Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Christina Fincher)
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