Covid-19: Nigeria firm develops app for detecting infected persons

A new nerdy twist has been introduced to the fight against Covid-19 in Nigeria thanks to Rapid Trace, an innovative mobile app which Cadnetwork Enterprise, a Nigerian start-up, developed.

With the mobile, some of the NCDC guidelines—contact tracing, social distance enforcement, crowd control, self-testing & QR—are now easy to carry out personally.

Rapid Trace’ s strategy consultant, Darlington Onyeagoro, said the mobile app was launched because technology is a common denominator in managing, mitigating the impact of the 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,” said Onyeagoro.

Explaining its works, the consultant said the app automatically pairs via Bluetooth with another that is in close proximity to it, closer than 2m with respect to time (15 minutes). With that, contact tracing becomes 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.

“Enforcing social distancing this superb feature is enabled by the use of in-app proximity sensor technology. It automatically beeps when 2 users of the app are less than the required 2m apart. Also crowd control feature enables the user to know when areas are crowded by alerting the user.

“This functions using the heat map technology. Thanks to Google, we can get real time heat maps of different locations like Supermarkets, Malls, Theaters, Churches, Gyms, Parks etc.” he added.

“Citizens will have to scan the QR codes of public places like eateries, supermarkets, theaters, malls etc. and also display their own QR code before they are granted access to public places. The Public QR codes allow us to quickly piece together where an infected person has visited for possible decontamination while the bluetooth data will tell us who they have been in contact with in the last 14 days.” Onyeagoro, stated

The  app will also remind users to take seriously other NCDC guidelines, including the daily self-test to determine status, wearing a face mask as they leave their homes, washing their hands frequently, and using alcohol based sanitizers 4, avoiding touching their face, nose, mouth, and crowding.

Rapid Trace is free to download on www.rapidtrace.com.ng but currently available only on Android.