To control and disseminate the right information about the Covid-19 pandemic in Nepal, the government of Nepal has introduced a web portal and mobile apps. Ministry of Health and Population (MoPH) announced the launching of an informative web portal and an app called ‘Hamro Swasthya’ for CorovaVirus threat. Not only MoPH but in this difficult situation, Nepal Army (NA) has also introduced an app called ‘Covid-19 Response App-Nepal’. Find below if both the apps have the contact tracing feature?
During the Coronavirus pandemic, the Nepal Government aims to reach people across the country through these apps and provide advice, immediate care to the people with the help of portal and mobile app. Here is how Nepali companies tackle the Coronavirus threat?
People need to download these apps on their mobile phones to be able to use it. These apps are currently available for Android mobiles only. To use these apps properly, you have to enable both mobile internet and GPS services on your phone. You will notice that these apps are in the Nepali Language for the convenience of Nepalese people.
MoPH web portal
MoPH web portal appears to be factual with official data representation. The MoPH has some important features that facilitate people with updated pieces of information.
To keep people away from fake news and data, the web portal shows the updating data of the number of tests, number of COVID-19 suspects, number of diagnoses, number of treatments, number of people in isolation, number of deaths, hotline numbers and so on.
At the right top corner of the web page, there are some important numbers for emergency cases, a link directing to the MoPH Viber community, and a link to download the ‘Hamro Swasthya’ app.
Their web portal also includes overall information related to symptoms, causes, and treatment of coronavirus with some videos and pictures attached. We can also see the web portal displaying the lists of hospitals and labs offering facilities for COVID-19, along with the location.
‘Hamro Swasthya’ App
Hamro Swasthya App is a handy version of the web portal. It has somewhat similar features as the MoPH web portal with one distinct feature. Although they developed the app now in the Coronavirus pandemic, they will also use it to provide important health information to Nepali citizens.
This app allows you to take a self-assessment to know if you are diagnosed with the virus or not. Other than that, this app contains all the necessary information about COVID-19, similar to the web portal.
This app can be used to find out if any hospital near your location is available or equipped with machines or not. It also helps medical experts to follow up with the suspects and for that, you have to fill up a form that asks for some basic information about yourself.
The app can be downloaded from the official website of the Ministry of Health and Population and also directly from the Google Play Store.
‘Covid-19 Response App-Nepal’ App
Covid-19 Response App-Nepal is an Android app launched by the Nepal Army. It is a simple app with features like information, symptoms, and safety. This app can be useful only if you are diagnosed with the virus infection and there are no designated hospitals nearby. This app can be beneficial for people in remote areas.
You can directly inform the Nepal Army of some infected person via this app. They will take you to a hospital with the treatment facility. The COVID-19 response app can be downloaded from the official website of the Nepal Army.
- Get the latest news and updates about COVID-19 from Notice section.
- Inform the Nepal Army about the suspects from the Patient section.
- Learn about the symptoms of the virus from Symptoms category.
- Learn about the precautions of the virus from Precaution category.
Why download the apps?
These apps have been launched with a sincere aim to provide correct as well as updated information about coronavirus pandemic to the people. There is so much misinformation and fake news out there so these apps can be a great tool to obtain clear information and to stay updated. Through these apps, the authorities can learn about COVID-19 suspects, if any.
It seems that people are misinterpreting the symptoms of flu with that of the coronavirus and panicking. These apps will help people differentiate between flu-like symptoms with COVID-19 symptoms. These apps also provide detailed care suggestions to follow in order to stay safe from coronavirus. You will notice that these apps are in the Nepali Language for the convenience of Nepalese people.
Contact Tracing App?
While we appreciate the government’s effort in bringing those apps to get official information, but we also need some contact tracing applications to find out the people who could have contacted the infected people. This would definitely help officials to track those individuals and perform the virus test to support prevent it’s spreading.
Now it is difficult to discover those contacts from the past using mobile apps. But they can perform the activity with some data analytics of the infected person’s location trace. For this, the government needs to collaborate with telcos in Nepal and Immigration departments. Earlier Kantipur reported that Nepal Army is developing such tracing app in border areas but we are unsure of the current app having that function.
We recommend you read the top ten uses of the internet at home for the lockdown period.
Conclusion
With the extension of Nepal lockdown for a few more days, the government of Nepal has launched these apps to provide medical help and awareness regarding COVID-19. We recommend you to download them on your mobile phones if you want to acquire authentic news and information about the Coronavirus impact in Nepal.
