El Government of Spain launched at the beginning of April COVID-19 Assistance app to self-diagnose coronavirus in many of the autonomous communities in which it is available. The objective of this launch was not only to help diagnose cases, but also to keep informed about the situation of the pandemic with official data.
The Government has published today in the BOE (Official State Gazette) all the details of the new functionalities and the data that is being collected with the use of the application by the population. There are five autonomous communities that already use this app, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla la Mancha and Extremadura.
An open source application
The tool COVID-19 assistance It will allow users to "carry out a self-assessment based on the medical symptoms that they report, about the probability that they are infected by coronavirus." In addition, the BOE indicates that "it will offer information to the user about COVID-19 and will provide the user with practical advice and recommendations for actions to follow according to the evaluation."
Telefónica has collaborated in the development of this useful application, it also offers hosting hosting for the download, management of the app, treatment of the personal data of registered users, deployment of the app and adoption of technical and organizational measures.
The COVID-19 Assistance functionalities
The BOE has fully detailed all the functionalities it has and that out of a total of six have been recognized to date. The first of these is the self-assessment based on the user's symptoms and that It will allow you to know in detail if you are a possible COVID-19 infected.
The second functionality is to monitor the temperature every 12 hours a day from each time you open the application. It has an alarm based on a reminder for those dismissed and programmable automatically when they come once the app is installed on our Android phone.
The third is to offer the user information about COVID-19 at all times, receiving notifications and preventive measures to carry out. The fourth is to offer practical advice and recommendations to follow depending on the evaluation of each of the registered users.
The fifth is the geolocation of the user via GPS, remembering that it is an option that is activated by default once it is downloaded and allowing connection with health care. Already the sixth and last is the access to the information of each citizen by the health authorities.
The data that COVID-19 Assistance collects
The mistrust by those who have not downloaded the application from the Play Store is due to wanting to safeguard their data, one thing that they assure should not worry in any of the cases. The data will be processed by the person in charge and sub-manager of the treatment, SGAD and Telefónica.
- Health data: It includes symptoms, dry cough, fever higher than 37,5 degrees, previous pathologies, suffocation, runny nose, muscle aches or general malaise and if you have been with a possible patient with COVID-19.
- Identification data: Once the users install the app, they have to fill in a form with their name, surname, ID, home address, contact telephone number, date of birth and gender. None of these will be used as they are only a means of contact in the event of a possible contagion by COVID-19.
- GPS geolocation: This is to obtain information on the autonomous community and city from which you use the application, knowing the scope of people with first symptoms and connecting with the nearest healthcare provider to treat it quickly and directly.
- User usage data with the application: This point is to be able to interactively get to know each of the registered users.
