The World Health Organization is planning to launch an app to allow citizens of under-resourced countries to assess symptoms of COVID-19. The organization is also considering to add a contact tracing feature to the app, according to a new report.
The app will have the capability to assess whether a user has symptoms of the disease and offer guidance, according to the WHO's chief information officer Bernardo Mariano. The organization will put up the app on app stores globally, but it will also allow governments to take the app's features and release their own version of it.
Several countries already have their own coronavirus app or are currently in the process of developing one. This kind of technology should allow for an easy transition, as several countries are already readying to open their economies.
"The value is really for countries that do not have anything," Mariano said. "We would be leaving behind the ones that are not able to (provide an app), that have fragile health systems."
According to Reuters, designers, and engineers, including some who have previously worked for Microsoft and Google, have been volunteering to develop the new app. The team is reportedly designing the app open-source on GitHub, opening the code to public input.
The WHO is also looking into adding more features to the app, aside from its symptom checking capabilities. According to Mariano, the app may also have a mental health care guide.
Engineers have done preliminary work and talked to smartphone operating system makers Apple and Google about possibly adopting technology the companies plan to release jointly this month to make tracing easier. Both tech giants have since reiterated that their technology will not use gathered data for other purposes and that they will stop the contact-tracing system once the pandemic ends.
While the WHO is currently assessing privacy issues on its COVID-19 app, it said that it will release guidance as soon as next week for countries to follow.
People living in countries with limited internet access will receive information via text messages. The WHO in March opened an account on WhatsApp to reach out to more people and send communication about the coronavirus. The move takes advantage of the platform's Free Basics program to make information available without users having to incur data charges.
The WHO is also readying an app for health workers to inform them about the best practices for wearing protective gear, sanitation, and treating the virus. It should be released later this week.
