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- South Africa now has an official government tracking app for the coronavirus.
- COVID Alert SA is a small application available for Android and Apple phones.
- He uses Bluetooth to search for other phones with the app installed and keeps an anonymous record of everyone he has been in contact with for two weeks.
- If you test positive for Sars-CoV-2, you tell the app, and the app tells everyone it came in contact with.
- You should receive an alert if someone you have contact with reports that they are infected.
- For more stories, visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
South Africa now has an official government contact tracing app for the coronavirus.
Although it has yet to be promoted, and has only been downloaded a small number of times so far, the COVID Alert SA app is available for Android devices on the Google Play store and on the Apple App Store for iPhones, with the South African National Department of Health as editor.
The little app, 2.1MB on Android phones and 5MB on iOS, promises to anonymously track your contact with everyone else who uses it for a period of two weeks, the upper limit of the Sars-CoV incubation period. -two. If a user reveals that they have tested positive for the coronavirus, everyone on that contact list is notified.
The app uses the exposure notification framework created by Google and Apple for use during the pandemic.
“By downloading and using the COVID Alert SA app, you become part of a powerful digital network of app users who choose to work together for the benefit of everyone in the app community while everyone enjoys complete privacy and anonymity,” said the Health Department. promises.
“Users of the app understand their exposure to Covid-19 and help others to do the same. We can all work together to slow the spread of Covid-19 and ultimately save lives.”
The application is free and uses only a small amount of data every day to register with a central server. But it requires the power-hungry Bluetooth radio to be turned on, causing the battery to drain significantly.
COVID Alert SA does not record your name or location. Instead, each device is assigned a unique code. Using Bluetooth, it shares that code with other phones running the app when in range, and it records the signal strength (a rough approximation of how close another person is) and the date of that contact.
The range of Bluetooth transmission can vary greatly depending on a variety of factors, but as a general rule it is around 10 meters.
Anyone who tests positive for the coronavirus must enter a PIN number that the health department sends via SMS as part of the notification system for Covid-19 tests.
This triggers alerts to other people who were very close, without revealing the identity of the infected person or any other information.
In which case “[a]Users of pp are guided on what to do next to optimize their well-being and prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus to others, ”says the health department.
The usefulness of the app will depend on how many people install it, whether they keep their Bluetooth radios on, and how quickly they report positive test results.
Download South Africa’s official Covid-19 tracker app from the Google Play Store for Android phones or the Apple App Store for iPhones.
(Compiled by Phillip de Wet)
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