Sri Krishna
In light of the Coronavirus, the government of Qatar had mandated that everyone leaving their house must have installed Ehteraz mobile application on their phones thereby enabling everybody else to see their tags which has been designed to keep track of Coronavirus. the application must be switched on at all times to track whether or not the person has come in contact with the patient of Covid19. Many of the malls and establishments have notified that they would only be allowing those with green tags to enter their facilities. In such scenario, there was a confusion doing rounds that whether children also require downloading the Ehteraz given that most of them don’t have a personalized smart phone with them. most parents were worried that their children who are below the age of 12 years and if they need to install the app mandatorily.
To make a full stop on those confusions and rumours, the Government has clarified that children below the age of 18 years NEED NOT download and install the application as they do not possess mobile phones of their own. The Qatar government Contact Center 109 mentioned that the order pertaining to compulsorily download the Ehteraz app before going out of homes applies to adults only.
However, as per both helplines 109 and 16000, those children who have their QID and smartphones as well should install Ehteraz application and turn it on while moving out for their own safety. This would provide added safety for them as well as for their surroundings. The hotlines have mentioned that parents should make sure that children stay home as much as possible to avoid any sort of exposure.
Can Children enter the Supermarkets and other establishments that require green tags?
Recently, the supermarkets in Qatar notified that they would only allow entry of those people who have green tags on their Ehteraz application. They also announced that they would not allow any children below the age of 12 years to enter their stores. Most of these supermarkets have now started this procedure. Therefore, parents should make sure that they do not take their children along with them when they go for shopping as they would not be allowed entry.
Source: 109 QGCC (Qatar Government Contact Center); COVID-19 hotline 16000
