By Paresh Dave
OAKLAND, California May 8 (Reuters) - The World Health
Organization (WHO) plans to launch an app this month to enable
people in under-resourced countries to assess whether they may
have the novel coronavirus, and is considering a Bluetooth-based
contact tracing feature too, an official told Reuters on Friday.
The app will ask people about their symptoms and offer
guidance on whether they may have COVID-19, the potentially
lethal illness caused by the coronavirus, said Bernardo Mariano,
chief information officer for the WHO. Other information, such
as how to get tested, will be personalized according to the
user's country.
Though the WHO will release a version on app stores
globally, any government will be able to take the app's
underlying technology, add features and release its own version
on app stores, Mariano said in a phone interview.
India, Australia and the United Kingdom already have
released official virus apps using their own technology, with
common features including telling people whether to get tested
based on their symptoms and logging people's movements to enable
more efficient contact tracing.
Several countries are ramping up contact tracing, or the
process of finding, testing and isolating individuals who
crossed paths with an infectious individual. It is seen as vital
to safely opening economies, and apps that automate parts of the
process could accelerate efforts.
The WHO expects its app to draw interest in other countries,
including some in South America and Africa where case numbers
are rising. They may lack the technology and engineers to
develop apps or be struggling to offer testing and education.
"The value is really for countries that do not have
anything," Mariano said. "We would be leaving behind the ones
that are not able to (provide an app), that have fragile health
systems."
Engineers and designers, including some who previously
worked at Alphabet Inc's Google and Microsoft Corp
, have been volunteering for weeks to develop the new
app with about five of them overseeing the process. They are
designing it open-source on the hosting service GitHub, meaning
code is open to public input.
Several team members declined to comment.
Mariano said he wants to include additional tools beyond the
symptom checker, including a self-help guide for mental health
care.
The team also is considering what the WHO refers to as
proximity tracing.
Engineers have done preliminary work and talked to
smartphone operating system makers Apple Inc and Google
about possibly adopting technology the companies plan to release
jointly this month to make tracing easier.
The technology relies on virtual "handshakes" between phones
that come within a few feet of each other for at least five
minutes. Phones keep anonymized logs of such encounters,
allowing someone who later tests positive to anonymously send
notifications to recent contacts about their possible exposure
to the virus.
But Mariano said legal and privacy considerations have
prevented the WHO from committing to such a feature yet. He
expressed concern about the many businesses pitching proximity
tools turning around and using any personal data they gather to
generate revenue later.
"We want to make sure we ring-fence all the risks around
it," he said.
Apple and Google have said their system will not use any
data for other purposes and will be stopped when the pandemic
ends.
The WHO plans to release guidance as soon as next week on
issues countries should consider as they weigh their own
proximity tracing apps.
To reach people with limited internet access, the WHO is
working to deliver information via text messages. In March, it
launched an account on Facebook Inc's WhatsApp to provide
users with information about the coronavirus, and it partnered
with the company's Free Basics program to make some information
available without users incurring data charges.
The WHO also plans to release an app next week to inform
health workers globally about best practices for donning
protective gear, washing hands and treating the virus. The
organization already has a general app, WHO Info, that largely
mirrors its website.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Greg Mitchell and
Jonathan Oatis)