The government’s initiative to develop Aarogya Setu, a mobile app to trace the COVID-19 victims has been manifested as an effective tool for preventing the spread of novel coronavirus. It has cautioned the authorities about more than 650 hotspots and forewarned them of 300 “apparent hotspots” throughout the country.
The healthcare application was put in place on April 2. Till now, 96 million people have enrolled their names and has become the fastest mobile app to cross 50 million users worldwide. The app has only two goals to fight against the pandemic- “whom to test” and “where to test more”.
Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant said: “For instance, in Maharashtra, the engine identified over 60 hotspots across 18 districts. Across the nation, the engine predicted about 130 hotspots at the sub-post office-level between April 13 to April 20. Later, these forecasted hotspots were declared as ‘real hotspots’ by the Union Health Ministry some 3 to 17 days after being alerted by Aarogya Setu. This way, the engine helped the government with “whom to test” and “where to test more” against the coronavirus.”
He further added, “The Aarogya Setu App alerted the government about more than 650 hotspots across the country and over 300 emerging hotspots which could have been missed otherwise. It gives an accurate forecast of hotspots and it is also preventing the origin of newer hotspots. The engine has generated incredible insights and impact with precise projections of locality, direction and velocity of the spread of infection”.
More than 12,500 users of the app have tested positive for the virus. The efficacy of testing recommended by Aarogya Setu is much higher than any testing protocol anywhere in the world and it manifolds higher than the current overall efficacy of testing in India, Kant said.
The app has been made available in 12 different languages and will be extended to 22 Indian languages as soon as possible.
