Amid calls to enhance contact tracing, the Philippine National Police (PNP) announced plans to roll out a mobile phone application that uses global positioning system (GPS) and bluetooth to keep tabs on people with the novel coronavirus.
The PNP hopes to roll out the Safe Paths app soon but did not mention the date when people could start downloading it.
Lt Gen Guillermo Eleazar, PNP deputy chief for operations, told Manila Times that the PNP and the military would use the app to help arrest the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). For about five weeks now, Luzon has been under enhanced community quarantine and other areas of the country have also been in lockdown.
The tracing tool, known as Safe Path app, was developed by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, in co-ordination with Harvard, Stanford, Mayo Clinic and other notable institutions.
The app was introduced to the local authorities by Safer PH Innovations, which has been working with Smart Communications, PLDT, SMS Global Technologies, Aexponent Systems, East Group and Visible in identifying technological solutions that can be used against the pandemic.
In order for Safe Path app to work, those with confirmed cases will required to inform the Department of Health (DoH) and give their location. That status will show on the app in their mobile phones. And through the bluetooth feature, the app would alert other people they come in contact with.
Every five minutes for 28 days, the GPS location of the people with the app will be logged on their smartphones.
The health status of the phone user will be colour-coded, Eleazar said, explaining that those who have no close contact will have a green circle displayed on their app. The app will display a yellow circle for those who had close contact.
Those who had close contact will need to go on self-quarantine or be tested if they develop symptoms, he added.
“We are connecting the app provider with CIDG, which is the PNP unit in charge on contact tracing,” said Eleazar, who is also the commander of Joint Task Force Corona Virus Shield. The CIDG is the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Earlier in statement, Eleazar explained that the health department would collect the data on location tracks generated by the smartphone app.
Eleazar pointed out that the app would respect privacy rights, adding that the personal information would be redacted from the data that the DoH would monitor.
Once the app was ready, he said the PNP would encourage the public to download it, adding that people would be asked show their mobile phones when they pass through checkpoints.
Eleazar added that authorities could also do random checks of pedestrians.
He said no decision had been made whether or not to impose penalties on people who do not have the tracing app on their phones.
The contact-tracing app in development for the Philippines follows similar applications used successfully in other countries, first in Singapore and then in China and South Korea.
In Singapore, authorities there deployed the Trace Together app, which also works using bluetooth to alert close contact with infected cases.
South Korea used cellphone location data for its government’s contact tracing, while China launched tracking apps with QR codes developed by companies like Alibaba and Tencent.
Meanwhile, Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo stressed the need for mass testing for Covid-19 before normal operations resume to identify who can go back to work and who may not.
In her weekly radio programme, she said the peculiar problem with the disease was that many people showed no symptoms.
She added that it was dangerous not knowing who is infected.
Also on her programme, Robredo reacted to calls for Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd to resign, asking everyone to avoid political bickering and remain united amid the fight against Covid-19.
Robredo said it was the right of the senators to express their opinion, but President Rodrigo Duterte will ultimately decide. She added it was better to help out the DoH if there had been lapses, as the country could not afford to be divided while it combats the pandemic.