As Apple and Google work on a deeply embedded smartphone contact tracing app for COVID-19, Defining Technologies, a Ugandan firm, has developed their own version of a similar solution which alerts users and the Ministry of Health in case someone has been in contact with a Covid-19 positive person.
Just like Google and Apple’s solution, Ugandan made contact tracing app will help people know if see if they have been exposed to the virus. The app privately stores your location and completely controls your data, and the public health officials are offered with reliable contact tracing, and it will map infections with accuracy and anonymously verify cases.
The draw-back of these apps especially here in Uganda is that not all citizens have smartphones especially in rural areas and not all smartphones can support some of the technologies required for the App required to work flawlessly e.g. Bluetooth low-energy (LE). The app uses wireless technologies like Global Positioning System (GPS) for positioning and Bluetooth low-energy (LE) signals to collect and share the data, which are agile and easy to use.
How contact tracing works
Apple and Google’s Application programing Interface (API) will make sure iOS and Android apps can trace users regardless of which operating system they’re using. But it will be restricted to official apps released by public health authorities on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. This means you local Health ministry must take part in this.
This digital contact tracing app will use overlapped GPS and Bluetooth low-energy (LE) signals trails that allow an individual to check if they have crossed paths with someone who was later diagnosed for the virus. Through COVID-19 Tracer, public health officials are equipped to redact location trails of diagnosed carriers and thus broadcast location information with privacy protection for both diagnosed patients and local businesses.
The COVID-19 contract tracing app will keep records of who a person meets. If a user or contact is confirmed to be positive, it will send notifications to everybody on that list, advising them to self-isolate.
With over 5,000 users currently, the contact tracing app was developed within only three months and was donated to the Ministry of Health National Taskforce to help in fast-tracking of contacts.
