Page 41 - Smart public health emergency management and ICT implementations - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

The World Bank has described it as an important voluntary initiative to combat the pandemic. It
uses GPS and Bluetooth technology to alert a user who may have come in contact with a Covid-19
positive patient. The Aarogya Setu digital App is set up for:

• Coronavirus tracking

• Contact tracing
• Connecting people to health services

What does it do?

The Aarogya Setu App does three things. When a user downloads it and first installs it, it will ask a
few questions to get a person’s profile, which is relevant to Covid-19. The App encourages users
to get a self-assessment, which determines if they are fine for now or may need some help.

The self-assessment is something users can take at any time, when they are feeling uncomfortable,
and/or not feeling well to ascertain if they need to do something or if somebody needs to reach
out to the concerned individuals.

The App also takes the users’ permission and starts recording their Bluetooth contact history once
every 30 minutes. The GPS location is used for those who are infected. The users of the App get
an alert from the authorities in case they are near an infected person or area.

When the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) notifies that a particular user is infected, their
GPS location data is taken and used to trace all the places they might have been to, inadvertently
contaminated or contracted the infection from, so that those areas can be contained and sanitized.

The Bluetooth contact history also is used when somebody is infected. This information helps trace
who else they might have spread it to. A more advanced model is capable of figuring out who
the user might have been in contact with, for how long and where, and that information is used to
determine if the person has to be self-isolated or who they need to reach out to.

The steps required to use the App are as follows:

1. After the user has run the App, it is permitted to access their device's location, as prompted.
2. The user gets an OTP (one-time password) and enters it to sync the App.

3. The user has to choose their gender from the options given.
4. The user’s full name, age and profession are requested.

5. The user is asked about their foreign travel history.

Once an appropriate answer is given regarding the foreign travel history, the answers will be
matched with the ones provided by individuals who have tested positive. This process is carried

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