Turkey to use public transport tech in COVID-19 fight

ANKARA

A Turkish company that offers electronic toll collection systems for public transportation vehicles has developed a solution for helping curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Fatih Gundogan, the general manager of ASIS CT-City Technologies Inc., explained that cards paired to specific passengers will help identify possible COVID-19 cases upon their boarding public transportation vehicles.

"By doing this, the transmission of the virus to other passengers will be prevented," said Gundogan, adding that individual electronic HES codes currently in use to show a person's infection status will be matched with their transportation cards.

The initiative was developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and local municipalities, he said, highlighting that, using this system, authorities would slap fines on quarantine violators.

"As of October, we provided the necessary infrastructure to all provinces where we operate. The personalized cards of the passengers must be matched with the HES code," he said, adding that, once ready the system would be initially available in about one-third of the country.

ASIS CT-City Technologies' toll collection system is used in 40 cities of Turkey.

*Writing by Yunus Girgin in Ankara