In line with the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister to deploy emerging technologies to help mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) and Ministry of Health, have begun distributing e-Bracelets compatible with the Kingdom’s COVID-19 contact tracing app, ‘BeAware Bahrain’.
Self-isolating individuals are instructed to wear the water-proof e-Bracelets. Whenever they are 15 meters away from their phones, a warning will be sent to notify the monitoring station. Violators will face legal penalties as per Public Health Law No. 34 for the year 2018, potentially being sentenced to imprisonment for a period not less than 3 months and a fine between BD1,000 and BD10,000, or either one of the two penalties.
The app also requires users to ensure their smart devices are charged and that their location services, Bluetooth, GPS and internet connections are on. iPhone users will need to ensure that the ‘Allow Location Access’ is set at ‘Always’. Self-isolating individuals using the app must identify their isolation location (their home in most cases) by selecting “Set Home Location” upon arrival. Users can correct location information by calling 444.
Ministry of Health officials may randomly send picture requests to self-isolating individuals, who must respond with a photo that clearly shows their face and bracelet. Attempting to remove or tamper with the bracelet is a violation.
The e-Bracelets helps in building a database in the “BeAware Bahrain” app, so the app provides real time local and statistics on the virus in the Kingdom.
Self-isolating individuals are also required to schedule a COVID-19 test date 3 days prior to the end of their self-isolation period by calling 444 or visiting the Ministry of Health’s website.
For inquiries, please call 8008001.