COVID-19 tracking app reaches 19.4 million

VGP – Up to 19.4 million people out of 76.8 million smartphone users have downloaded Bluezone, a domestically developed contact-tracing mobile app to alert people who have interacted with COVID-19 patients, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

August 19, 2020 4:06 PM GMT+7

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The app has gone two third of the ‘journey’ to reach the optimal level of SARS-CoV-2 warnings.

Of the 19.4 million app users, the biggest number of subscribers were recorded in five localities, including Da Nang (with 423,000 users, equivalent to 37.3% of the local population); Ha Noi (with 2.334 million, 29%); Quang Ninh(359,000, 27.2%); HCMC (2.293 million, 25.5%); and Bac Ninh(301,000, 22%).

The Department of Information and Technology under the MIC report that contact tracking assessment would be absolute if 60% of adult population installs the app. Hence, Viet Nam needs about 30 million users to make Bluezone effective.

Recently, the app served to trace additional 343 people who had close contacts with COVID-19 patients besides the traditional method.

On August 14, the MIC sent a document to local leaders with under 10% of Bluezone population users and urged people to install the app. The ministry aimed to achieve at least 50% of smartphone user coverage by August 20./.

By Kim Loan