How Contact Tracing App Helps Us Combat against Coronavirus

Author

Ruchir Kakkad

13 May 2020

8 min

3.6 million and counting- the COVID-19 has created a horrendous picture in front of humankind. The disease, originated from Wuhan and spread rapidly across the USA, has drastically changed our lifestyle. What makes this crisis more dangerous is the fact that the virus is extremely difficult to detect in infected persons. Many victims have not shown any symptoms of coronavirus infection, and therefore, it is necessary to find such people to curb the spread. There, the contact tracing app comes into the picture.

Before digging deep into the features and importance of contact tracing mobile apps, let’s get a brief introduction of them and find out how technology helps us beat this outbreak. In this article, we will also get a brief idea of technicalities involved in the contact tracing app development. Let’s start from scratch.

Contact Tracing Apps for Coronavirus – Brief Introduction

Bluetooth and AI-based technologies are integrated into the mobile app development to build a contact tracing app for COVID-19. It communicates with the app users through Bluetooth and shares their data including timing and device ID at the local level.

How mobile apps for COVID-19 work?

When someone tests positive for COVID-19, the system enables the government or health authorities to trace all the users with whom the infected person is connected. Here, timestamps and device IDs play a vital role in tracing contacts. The healthcare officials monitor the geographical movements of all the users. What’s more, when the app users come close to the infected person, they get notification about the possible risk and then get advice to self-isolate.

Contact tracing mobile apps for COVID-19 are designed to notify the app users across different areas when they are highly vulnerable to the virus. However, such apps have multiple use cases and they can be utilized during the incidences of other pandemics also. These apps can play a significant role in breaking the chain of coronavirus. This is the prime reason why many companies are looking for a contact tracing app worldwide.

COVID-19-contacted-People-map

Image Source

During the outbreak of any virus, it is practically impossible to identify whether we come into contact with infected people. Talking about COVID-19, the virus can remain passive for a long time in persons known as asymptomatic cases. Now, the contact tracing mobile apps for COVID-19 can effectively track such persons and immediately notify the users if they are around the infected people. Also, such apps can be backtracking users who have a high risk of having an infection and need immediate medical help.

Also Read – How We Can Help You Run Your Business Like Before During Coronavirus

Let’s understand both these assessment methods of the contact tracing app.

  • User’s Assessment

The COVID-19 app offers a quick assessment test using AI-based features. The contact tracing app has a record of symptoms of coronavirus patients and based on such record, the AI-powered algorithm identifies the user’s risk levels for COVID-19.

  • Background Assessment

AI and geo-fencing technologies can help the app trace the user’s behavior. The contact tracing app can effectively assess the following situations-

  • Self-isolation
  • Social distancing
  • Home quarantine
  • Visit contaminated zone
  • Transportation

Which are the major features of mobile apps for COVID-19?

Mobile apps for COVID-19 have three different panels for meeting the requirements of separate stakeholders.

Let’s go through the key features of the contact tracing mobile apps for COVID-19.

Features-and-Importance-of-Contact-Tracing-Apps-for-COVID-19-1

User Side

1. Registration and Profile Creation

Users can register through social media accounts and contact numbers. After registration, users need to enter their personal information including name, age, and addresses of work and home.

2. Vehicle Registration and Management

Users can add their vehicle’s information in this section. It asks for the vehicle’s model and registration number along with the year of purchase.

3. Background Assessment

This is one of the most important features of this app. The app can run in the background to assess various factors like self-isolation, home quarantine, social distancing, and the like. The app can notify the users immediately when they make any contact with an infected person or with high risk. The app also tracks and maintains the travel history of the users. The app also sends a notification once the user crosses the boundary decided by the health authority.

4. Contact Tracing

This highly important feature is based on Bluetooth technology. The digital contact tracing app records the user’s data and shares the same with the other user’s device through Bluetooth and beacons.

5. Self-Assessment

The app stores the user’s data using a questionnaire. The users can get their risk scores based on the answers given by the users. The app usually asks questions about symptoms and body temperature.

Apart from these key features, the contact tracing app can have additional features like multilingual support, route planner, and scheduler.

Features-and-Importance-of-Contact-Tracing-Apps-for-COVID-19-1

City Admin-side Web Panel

1. User Management

The city admin can get access to the user’s risk score and travel history along with location tracking. This feature enables the city admin to manage the app users as per predefined norms.

2. Geo-fencing

The city admin can help the users get a notification once they go in a COVID-19 prone zone. This feature is based on geo-fencing and it enables the city admin to define the contentment zone and red zone.

3. Transportation Management

The city admin can see various available means of transportation and manage the route for the app users with the help of this feature. What’s more, the city admin can monitor the user’s movement and get their stoppage details.

Admin-side Web Panel

1. Interactive Dashboard

The admin can get all the necessary information in real-time through an interactive dashboard. The admin can get all important stats and manage all the activities efficiently.

2. City Admin Management

It facilitates the admin or super admin to stay connected with city admins and manage their activities. It also brings all the city admins on one platform for giving them instructions.

3. User Management

The admin can view the user’s activities and manage the COVID-19 assessments. What’s more, additional features in the user side panel like the transportation scheduler can also be monitored through this feature.

Developing a contact tracing app with necessary features is the need of the hour. It is designed to save humanity from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Concluding Lines

A feature-rich contact tracing app can give us a new strength to combat against dreaded coronavirus outbreak. These applications are designed to notify users of whether the area they are visiting is safe or prone to infection. It is essential to break the chain of COVID-19 to curb its spread, and contact tracing mobile apps can increase the possibility of breaking this chain.

As a renowned mobile app development company, WebOccult Technologies can assist your enterprise to make the most of advancing technology in customized app solutions. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has compelled many industries to either shut their operations temporarily or keep them continuing by the WFH concept. We enable entrepreneurs to maintain productivity in this grim situation using advanced software. Do drop us a line at info@localhost to know more.

Categories
  • AI/ML
  • Web Development
  • Laravel
  • Computer Vision
  • Mobile App Development
  • Digital Twin
Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter and receive a selection of cool articles every weeks