13000 Aarogya Setu users found Covid-19 positive

Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology said 13000 users were found to be COVID-19 positive or at risk of the disease through the app.

New Delhi: As many as 13000 people of Aarogya Setu app users have been found Covid19 positive and their details have been shared with States and district administrations, said Empowered Group 9 on Covid19 chairman Ajay Prakash Sawhney.

Sawhney who is also the secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology said that data of those 13000 people have been uploaded in the Aarogya Setu server.

"We combine the movement history of positive patients with the self-assessment report that is submitted by the people. This enables us to identify potential hotspot areas and take preventive action. Accordingly, information of 697 hotspots have been sent to the state and district administrations," said Sawhney.

Aarogya Setu app has been downloaded by 9.8 crore smartphone users across India. He reiterated that special surveillance system was developed in order to make proper health data on testing.

Aarogya Setu app data and contact tracing are available to health professionals and administrators only. He ruled out the possibility of breach of privacy data.

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"We have worked a lot on data privacy of Aarogya Setu users and made sure that users' data are not compromised, government use information only for administering Covid-19 related health interventions and not for any other purpose when two Aarogya Setu app users come in contact, information of the contact is stored in the other person device in encrypted form," he said.

"This is stored in the server only when the users become COVID positive," he added.

He said that the Aarogya Setu app has been playing an app very vital role in India's fight against COVID-19.

"The app has been developed in order to alert people before they come in contact with infected patients," he said.

He said that location data is used through the app in order to facilitate containment actions and to protect the community.

Highlighting the Aarogya Setu app, Sawhney said that through different features of the app, people in the small area get alert on the presence of COVID positive cases.

"Quarantine alert system helps quarantine monitoring and migration system helps people who migrate from one place to another," said Sawhney while elaborating on the features of the app.

Sawhney said that all unique interactions stored only for 30 days on the device.

"Data on the server deleted in 45 days for non-risk users and 60 days from the date of the cure for Covid-19 positive patients," he said.

He said that location data of the users are used in case someone test positive, only to map places the particular individual visited in 14 days for sanitization and testing of people to prevent further spread.

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