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Technology helps Vietnam in Covid-19 battle

May 18, 2021 | 09:51 am GMT+7

Technological solutions recommended by the Ministry of Information and Communications have contributed to helping many provinces in Vietnam detect, localize, and prevent the spread of Covid-19 while maintaining a "new normal" life.

Technological solutions recommended by the Ministry of Information and Communications have contributed to helping many provinces in Vietnam detect, localize, and prevent the spread of Covid-19 while maintaining a "new normal" life.

According to the Department of Informatics (Ministry of Information and Communications), an additional 1.65 million people have downloaded and installed the Covid-19 tracking application Bluezone since April 28.

As of 5:00 p.m. on May 14, the country had 32.19 million downloads and installs of the Bluezone application. On average, since April 28, the system recorded about 92,000 new downloads of the Bluezone application every day.

Da Nang, Hai Duong, Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Bac Ninh, and Ho Chi Minh City currently have the highest percentage of population installing Bluezone. These are also localities where the number of Bluezone users exceeds 30% of the total population.

In the opposite direction, there are eight provinces and cities where the number of Bluezone users is less than 15% of the population. They are Hoa Binh (14.99%), Thai Binh (14.79%), Quang Ngai (14.5%), Yen Bai (14.41%), Thanh Hoa (13.72%), Nam Dinh (13.43%), Dak Lak (12.75%), Nghe An (11.82%), and Dien Bien (11.17%). The number of people using Bluezone only accounts for 17-26% of smartphone users in the above provinces.

On April 23, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued the “Document guiding the use of a set of solutions to support the prevention, control and tracing of Covid-19 in the community”.

Many provinces and cities have helped local people to apply technological solutions such as NCOVI, Bluezone and QR code to support epidemic prevention.

In Hanoi, the local government has requested all agencies to strictly organize medical declarations by QR code and apply IT in epidemic prevention. In particular, all people returning to Hanoi after the holidays of April 30 and May 1 had to make a medical declaration on the website tokhaiyte.vn or by scanning a QR code, using applications such as NCOVI, Bluezone or website tokhaiyte.vn.

Hanoi also required people going to public places such as markets, supermarkets, restaurants, parks, bus stations, and hospitals to scan QR codes. This saves people's "epidemiological landmarks" that serves tracing of people who may be infected with Covid-19. The app is used along with the Bluezone application.

Other provinces such as Bac Ninh, Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Thanh Hoa, Kon Tum, Lam Dong have also mobilized local residents to use IT solutions like NCOVI, Bluezone… in the fight against Covid-19.

Technological solutions recommended by the Ministry of Information and Communications have contributed to helping many localities across the country to detect early, localize effectively, and stop the spread of the disease while maintaining normal life.

Make in Vietnam applications for Covid-19 prevention:

- NCOV: For people to declare personal information and health status. This is the official channel for authorities to send recommendations to people about the epidemic situation.
- Vietnam Health Declaration: For people entering Vietnam to make medical declarations. Based on the data collected from this application, the health system will provide medical assistance as quickly as possible.
- Bluezone: A Bluetooth-based app that helps determine if a person has come in contact with a COVID-19 patient. The contract tracing app uses Bluetooth Low Energy, a wireless personal area network technology, to link with smartphones within a two-meter distance. If a user is positive for SARS-CoV-2 (known as person F0), health authorities can identify those who had close contact with that person (known as F1), and the system will alert them about the risk of infection. They will be also provided with instructions on contacting health authorities for assistance. So far, around 32 million downloads of Bluezone have been recorded.

- Hanoi Smartcity: This application makes it possible for people to monitor people under quarantine and Covid-19 patients. The monitoring is conducted by the GPS system on the phone. The Hanoi SmartCity app displays the location of people who are quarantined or under medical supervision due to suspected Covid-19 infection (F1 to F3).