Rapid Trace, a new innovative contact tracing mobile app has been developed by Cadnetwork Enterprise, burgeoning Nigerian tech firm. The app is being touted as a key in Nigeria’s fight against COVID-19.
The Guardian writes that the app is designed “for Nigeria by Nigerians” and is available for free. Currently only on Android smartphones.
The app offers a bevvy of features apart from contact tracing. Namely social distance enforcement, crowd control, self-testing & QR, among many more.
Darlington Onyeagoro, strategy consultant at Rapid Trace, says that the mobile app was launched because technology is a common denominator in managing and mitigating the impact of the current pandemic, restoring livelihoods and tackling similar challenges in the future.
“Presently our nation has employed a manual means of contact tracing by asking about travel history but with the Rapid Trace app, contact tracing will be enhanced with the use of GPS and Bluetooth technology,” Onyeagoro says.
“The app automatically pairs via Bluetooth with another that is in close proximity to it, e.g closer than 2m with respect to time (15 minutes). This makes contact tracing easy as people that were in close proximity with a sick person in the last 14 days are notified to quarantine themselves and go for testing.”
He adds that the apps “Enforcing social distancing” feature is enabled via an in-app proximity sensor. It automatically beeps when 2 users of the app are less than the required 2m apart. Its crowd-control feature is enabled by the use of heat map technologies.
“Thanks to Google, we can get real-time heat maps of different locations like Supermarkets, Malls, Theaters, Churches, Gyms, Parks etc,” he adds.
Rapid Trace is designed to work throughout the society, through all facets, in order to protect everyone.
“Citizens will have to scan the QR codes of public places like eateries, supermarkets, theatres, malls etc. and also display their own QR code before they are granted access to public places,” Onyeagoro says on the firm’s plans to keep the country safe. Public QR codes will allow the firm to quickly trace where infected persons may have been, and whom they may have contaminated.
No word yet on how the app plans to protect the privacy of its users.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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