The Health Ministry is sending text messages to young children, but not to their parents, telling them they need to enter 14 days of home quarantine because they were in close proximity to coronavirus carriers, Zman Yisrael, the Times of Israel’s Hebrew site is reporting.
The messages are part of the automated process by which all Israelis’ movements are now being digitally tracked under the controversial system introduced last Wednesday, and text messages ordering self-quarantine are sent to people who are found to have spent 10 minutes or more in close proximity to virus carriers.
Zman cites a text message sent to a 13-year-old girl in central Israel, and says her parents were not informed that she needs to enter quarantine. It says there are concerns that children of all ages are being texted, rather than their parents, and that they might not alert their parents and could ignore the instruction.
The Israel National Council for the Child is contacting the Health Ministry over the issue, it says.
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