Contact-tracing apps – what are they and how can they help?
Covid-19 pandemic has changed a lot worldwide – we work more remotely, we are distancing from each other and we also have to work to stop the spread of coronavirus. Contact-tracing apps are here to help.
What is a contact-tracing app? It’s a mobile app that helps you to identify if you have been in contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.
Many countries are planning to use contact-tracing apps, some are doing it already.
How can it work?
Most of the time a sick person logs into the app and puts data on where they have been and who they’ve been in contact with. But with coronavirus the scale is much bigger: it would be too time consuming to question the infected people so the solutions had to be automated.
Contact-tracing apps can run in the background of your device and track where you’ve been and who you’ve been in contact with. If you’ve been in contact with someone who has coronavirus and also has the app you would be alerted of this. That way you know you should self-isolate or get tested.
If majority have the app and put relevant data in it it’s a very good method to control the outbreak of Covid-19 and to slowly get the country running again.
Many countries are setting up their apps, getting ready to start. Australia is already using one, it’s called CovidSafe. The apps are mostly using Bluetooth technology with geolocalization.