Kangra experts make application to trace contacts of Covid-19 patients

DHARAMSHALA: In most populated district of Himachal Pradesh at Kangra, experts have made an application that can trace contacts of Covid-19 patients in one click within seconds. This application has been integrated with Arogya Setu mobile app of government of India also. Contact tracing in this application works by using a smartphone's bluetooth signals to determine whether a person had come into proximity of any Covid patient in the past or not.
A group of experts from National Informatics Center (NIC) here and administration have collaborated in the month of March to plan this application for handling coronavirus in this populated region of hill state.
The application was first made for people who wanted to leave this district on April 16 and later on April 26 another feature was embedded in it for people who want to enter this area.
Kangra deputy commissioner Rakesh Kumar Prajapti when contacted told TOI that experts from NIC have linked the database of local government directory to keep authorities informed up to village level and Vahan database was also used to keep track of vehicle for number of times it was used in different places.
“The idea was to keep the authorities ready to trace all details in case any person found positive. It will also help people who have in contact with that person in case he was found positive for Covid-19” he added.
As per records, 1.7 lakh people have used this application so far. The users have applied passes on this out of which nearly 40,000 were rejected due to various reasons and above 52,000 were approved.
Requesting anonymity, one of the officials at NIC revealed that this application is integrated with Arogya Setu app it helps pass approving authority to know that whether the applicant has come into contact with the Covid-19 patient in past or not.
“Information can go to village level if person given pass to enter in district. Further surveillance thing is also monitored through this application. The status comes red if person applying for pass have come in contact with Covid person in past and it is green if not” he said.
Through Vahan data base, this application can also trace about the vehicle that for how many times it had ferried in state or other areas. If traveler found positive the owner of vehicle (taxi) can be informed. Department of information and technology of state has also designed an application to provide entry passes but that lacks these most of the features mentioned above.