Romania develops app to track coronavirus patients and their contacts

A real-time monitoring application for coronavirus patients and their contacts is currently being developed in Romania, local Digi24 reported. The platform will also be able to warn users if a sick person is nearby, and even if they have come in contact with someone later confirmed positive.

In addition, the app will also have a map of COVID-19 outbreaks in the country, which would help doctors make epidemiological investigations faster.

Doctors from the Military Hospital designed the Coronavirus COVID-19 Romania app, which will be ready in about a year. It will cost RON 500,000.

Users will receive an anonymous ID and, if they are confirmed with coronavirus, they will have to mention this. This way, those coming in contact with them will know that they could be infected as well. For the app to identify infected persons in real-time, the users will have to turn on the location and Bluetooth services on their phones.

“It practically interacts with other applications installed on other phones and collects for a period of time, between two and four weeks, a series of data in the phone,” explained Adrian Floarea, IT firm manager. He also said that the information about infected people would be anonymized.

Representatives of the Military Hospital say this app will also be useful for the doctors.

“If a positive patient is identified in Prahova Valley, with this type of app and using the GPS location, we can identify all contacts around this patient quickly,” explained Silviu Stanciu, project manager.

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