The government on Thursday launched a mobile app to help people assess themselves the risk of catching coronavirus infection and alert authorities if they have come in close contact with a person infected with the deadly virus.
According to a ministry official, the app will detect onlyfresh cases and will send out alerts to only those who have been nearby theinfected person.
“The App, called ‘AarogyaSetu’ joins Digital India for thehealth and well-being of every Indian. It will enable people to assessthemselves the risk of catching the coronavirus infection. It will calculatethis based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge bluetoothtechnology, algorithms and artificial intelligence,” an official statementsaid.
If a person is clinically tested positive with coronavirusinfection, the mobile number of the infected person is included in the registermaintained by the health ministry and will be updated on the app as well, an ITministry official explained.
“Once installed in a smartphone through an easy anduser-friendly process, the app detects other devices with AarogyaSetu installedthat come in the proximity of that phone. The app can then calculate the riskof infection based on sophisticated parameters if any of these contacts aretested positive,” the statement said.”TheApp will help the government take necessary timely steps for assessing the riskof spread of COVID-19 infection, and ensuring isolation where required,” thestatement said.