India’s Arogya Setu app which helps significantly in contact tracing and curbing the spread of the dreaded coronavirus pandemic has crossed over five crore downloads. It further got a push after Prime Minister Modi made an appeal to the citizens for downloading of the app during his ‘lockdown 2.0’ address to the nation today.
The Government on April 2 had launched ‘AarogyaSetu’, a mobile app to spread the awareness and to connect essential health services to the people of India in the fight against coronavirus epidemic. Once installed in a smart phone through an easy and user-friendly process, the app using advanced bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence detects other devices with AarogyaSetu installed that come in the proximity of that phone. The app can then calculate the risk of infection based on sophisticated parameters if any of these contacts is tested positive.
The App will help the Government take necessary timely steps for assessing risk of spread of COVID-19 infection, and ensuring isolation where required.
The App’s design ensures privacy-first. The personal data collected by the App is encrypted using state-of-the-art technology and stays secure on the phone till it is needed for facilitating medical intervention.
Available in 11 languages, the App is ready for pan-India use from day-1 and has highly scalable architecture. This app is an updated version of an earlier app called Corona Kavach (now discontinued). Aarogya Setu crossed five million downloads within the three days of its launch, making it one of the most popular government apps in India. World Bank has also praised the app.
