Hanoi watches quarantined citizens with smartphone app

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A smartphone user checks the new app Hanoi SmartCity (Photo:VNA)

Hanoi has activated a smartphone app that allows the authorities to keep check on quarantined patients and lets the patients themselves update health information.

It also shows the public where about in the city people who have tested positive, or came into contact with positive patients, were staying.

Details of Hanoi SmartCity were revealed on March 18 by Nguyen Duc Chung, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi.

It aims to provide local people information about the COVID-19 pandemic, a map of tracking the spread of the virus in the city as well as supervise infected and quarantined citizens.

The app enables monitoring both infected people and those who are required to be quarantined via GPS system.

The app was designed by the city’s Informatics Centre and the city’s Centre for Disease Control. To download the app, people have to search for the keyword “Hanoi SmartCity” on the Google Play Store or App Store and then install it on the device.

The app has two sections, one for the people and another for the Government. Currently, the whole list of quarantined people has been updated to the system.

People, who are required to be quarantined, will register and create an account by their smartphone and identity card.

After the system synchronizes data, it will notify the app user to turn on GPS for monitoring.

People can use the integrated functions to report daily health information, keep track of information about the pandemic developments provided by the city authority and discuss with the local health authorities via the app.

Local administration will be provided a map to monitor the entire distribution of outbreaks in the city. When a quarantined or infected person on the map leaves the location, immediately the person in charge of supervision will receive a notification message to know how far the quarantined or infected person is.