The Government of Spain has announced Radar COVID, the official contact tracing application that makes use of the Google and Apple API for Android and iOS systems. The testing test initially began in La Gomera, the site where the first case of coronavirus became known at the end of January.
Currently it is not being functional until the communities incorporate it in mid-September, they suggest that it will be on the 15th of next month. The pilot phase has worked quite wellTherefore, it remains to be seen if, in actual practice, a pandemic that is still in force today can be controlled.
Radar COVID, what is it?
La Radar COVID app It has been developed by the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, identical to those created in other European countries. The app allows a record with the people you have come across, tracking the contacts and allowing you to know information about them. This will ultimately confirm whether there is a possible risk of COVID-19 infection from someone who has previously tested positive.
The API is ready so that the agency's applications can take advantage of contact tracing, in Android to get there it will be enough to look for the option notification of exposures to COVID-19. Radar COVID calculates with the people you have crossed in the last two weeks to a lower range of 2 meters, with a time interval of about 15 minutes.
Automated tracking will reach a lot more people in a short period of time, not having to be a manual and tedious job in the end. The La Gomera pilot program achieved very good results and that is why it will be launched on September 15, giving a great push to know the scope thanks to mobile devices and the official Government application called Radar COVID.
Radar COVID will inform you of the risks of possible contagionIn addition to being able to inform the app if you have tested positive for coronavirus to help the system work, the other users will have to do the same for everything to work properly. Sending the diagnosis will authorize us a number, not providing any name, but that number being vital for the health authorities.
This is how Radar COVID works
The operation of Radar COVID is almost identical to that of other applications tracking, the system is in charge of working on the basis of the users who are using the tool. The system uses the Bluetooth connection at all times, so it is necessary to have the transmission system connected to work, the use of Bluetooth will make our phone have a lower autonomy if we use 4G / 5G on the street.
Radar COVID will not use the location, GPS or anything related to this, Bluetooth will be enough to be able to keep track, also knowing the proximity with other people in the environment or not being necessary to be near people with possible contagion. The phone generates a different password 24 hours a day, generating identifiers every 20 minutes and transmitting with terminals close to ours.
The codes do not generate identifiers of the people, not providing information about the person or about each of the devices. Only the authorities will be able to see the tracking in case of confirmed infections and see which people you crossed paths with to avoid chain infections.
Phones with COVID Radar they will come to search codes automatically around 300 seconds, the smartphone will store these codes for about two weeks, after that time it will be automatically deleted and will avoid the code collapse on our Android mobile device.
Using COVID Radar
Radar COVID is a fairly simple application to use on Android, so much so that no tutorial is necessary, just follow the steps that the interesting guide asks us to install it from the Play Store. Once you download and install it, open the application and click on "Activate tracking."
Once you have it installed on your device, look for it in the home of your Android phone, open the app, click on "Accept the terms of use" and click on Activate the "COVID Radar"Once you activate it, a window will appear in which a message will appear saying: "Activate COVID-19 exposure notifications?" It will tell you that you must use Bluetooth to collect random IDs.
If you have tested positive for a PCR test, the center will provide you with a code that you must enter in the Radar COVID-19 application for tracking by the health authority. From that moment, the server will have the code to verify it and will begin to share the daily identifiers if you usually go out frequently, but it is advisable to maintain a quarantine for a certain time.
