DIGITAL LIFE

Portuguese researchers create an app that alerts you when someone with COVID-19 is on your side

The news is advanced by Renascença radio, which says that since March it has been developed by a team from the Institute of Systems and Computers Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC Tec), in the city of Porto, a mobile application that alerts its user if you have been in close contact with someone infected with the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
With the provisional designation of monitor4Covid19 and Stepaway, it seeks to meet the tracking effort that is developed by health professionals.
"This method is much faster than the current system of asking infected people they were with and contacting them directly by phone", stresses José Manuel Mendonça, president of the Institute, "because whenever a person is identified as being infected by new coronavirus, health professionals are obliged to locate all the people with whom the patient has been in contact ".
Despite rumors that the government would be considering its mandatory implementation, contrary to the European Union's indications, and that the presence of several members of the government in the official presentation came to feed, Rui Carlos Oliveira, administrator of INESC Tec, guarantees to Rádio Renascença that Use of the application is "absolutely voluntary" and that "only people who download the application from one of the Apple or Google application stores will be able to participate in this screening".
"Once installed, the application does not ask for any data from the person, nor even authorization to obtain data from the cell phone itself. The only authorization it asks for is to use Bluetooth technology", assures Oliveira, adding that the geographical location will not be collected either.
The application works quite simply. If one of the users who installed the application were diagnosed with SARS-Cov-2, any other user who downloaded the application and who had been in contact with the patient in the previous 14 days, receives an alert message.
For everything to work, it is necessary for the patient to authorize a health professional to share this information, which is done anonymously, guarantees the institute, because whoever receives the message will never know who the person is, but will be aware of any symptoms or you can go to the health authorities to perform a test.
In relation to elderly people who are not prone to technologies, those responsible for the application do not see them as the main recipients, as they are a risk group to whom confinement is best advised.
The target audience of the application will mainly be made up of younger people, including those who within days are returning to schools and universities, who will more easily use this technology and who correspond to a specific group of the population that may be infected and asymptomatic, the authors of the application, cited by the Renaissance, express their opinion.
They warn, however, that the application's success is only viable if 60% of the population adheres to the operation.
As recommended by the European Commission, the application will not store the location of users or reveal the identity of infected people, and will not be mandatory to use.

Reuters