With unique COVA app feature, you can check distance from nearest Covid-19 patient

It also alerts the administration if a quarantined patient or suspect moves beyond 100 metres of her/his base location

Deputy commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal has urged the residents to use COVA mobile app inlarge numbers as a unique in-built feature in the app allows people to maintain distance from the nearest Covid-19 positive person. It also alerts the district administration if a quarantined patient or suspect moves beyond 100 metres of her/his base location, he said.

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He informed that the feature is helping the authorities enforce quarantine restrictions and enable the people to keep themselves and their family members safe through a self-control mechanism.

By geo-tagging the positive patients, the app helps the district administration trace locations that the positive individual have visited in the last few days. If the phone Bluetooth is on, the app will alert the citizen on coming in the Bluetooth range of a Covid-19 suspected or positive persons.

This also helps the health department and the district administration trace the contact history of positive patients.

Agrawal informed that for the app to be effective, the GPS location and Bluetooth need to be switched on.

These mobile numbers can also be used by the telecom providers to track movement if the location or Bluetooth is disabled. The telecom companies send hourly reports to the department of health on breaches in each district.

Notably, the COVA app has had more than 10 lakh downloads till now and is enabling the citizens as well as the government officials to effectively execute lockdown and social distancing norms.