The government is going to call approximately 900 million people to check if they have symptoms of the coronavirus infection. It has stepped up its contact tracing efforts through the Aarogya Setu app.

The app is developed by the government and is soon going to extend to all feature phone users, as the Centre plans to partner with telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea. These operators will call their subscribers. Around 550 million feature phone users are present in the country.

On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs, in its order instructed that the local authority will ensure 100% coverage of Aarogya Setu app of residents within the Containment Zone. The lockdown has been extended till 17th May.

Abhishek Singh, CEO of MyGov told ET, that the voice calls will be in all Indian languages and use an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) from a central helpline number – 1921. The IVRS call will ask and check for symptoms and will alert the local health authorities about those people who report any symptoms. He said that all smartphone users who had not downloaded the application will also get notifications from their service providers to download it. Approximately, 80 million people have installed the app and it alerts users if they had come in contact with a coronavirus positive person, using the GPS location and Bluetooth on their devices.

Arnab Kumar, program director of NITI Aayog told ET that the Aarogya Setu team has adopted a two-pronged strategy to reach millions of feature phone users. The team is also testing advanced stage of Aarogya Setu app on Jio Phones that can operate on Kai OS, which is capable of running certain apps. The government expects to reach 100-150 million Jio users through this initiative. By the pan-India roll-out of the IVRS, the subscribers can discuss their medical ailment on a toll-free number and will be provided proper medical intervention. Thus, the entire population can be covered.

The medical team of Ayushman Bharat is reaching out to people who had self-declared symptoms to provide medical intervention based on feedback from the application. Till now, more than 75,000 calls have been made.

The Centre made downloads of Aarogya Setu compulsory for its employees. All central government employees and those with public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies must review their “status” on the app before reaching the office.

The Centre has also ordered that migrant laborers and other stranded people who are being shifted to their home states should also download the app as their health status can also be tracked and monitored. But few privacy activists have raised concerns over the compulsory download of the app.

Source: ET Healthworld