APP TO TRACK COVID-19 PATIENTS HERE

MBABANE - It’s now official; COVID-19 patients and those suspected to have the virus will be easily tracked.

A contact tracing application for COVID-19 called ‘Tsembisa App’ was officially launched yesterday at the Hilton Garden Inn. The application, which was warmly received by the Ministry of Health, came into being through the partnership of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), Real Image, who did the technical work, the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Eswatini Post and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC), MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile.

Initiative

The committee responsible for putting together this initiative was EPTC Managing Director Petros Dlamini (Chairman), MTN Eswatini CEO Wandile Mtshali (Vice Chairman), Eswatini Mobile Chief Customer Officer Gciniwe Fakudze (Secretary), NDMA’s Eric Seyama as the Vice Secretary and Wandile Mhlanga, a member. Real Image Director Ali Resting said; “This virus is now everywhere in the country and we looked at a way to manage it promptly.” He said they made the human case management application, which had been already put to test for about three to four weeks.

The application has the ability to send a live update of where a person is, not to rely on making a phone call to enquire about a suspected patient’s whereabouts. Resting also said confirmed cases would be able to send a link of their contacts through a link in the application. “This feature of instantly sending a link will make contact tracing very easy and instant,” he said. He said suspected patients awaiting results would be given a prescribed area which was marked with green and they would have to check-in at random times. “If they do not check-in, a reminder will be sent to them and they would have to check-in. If they leave their phones at home to appear to be in the prescribed zone and do not check-in when a reminder is sent, the alarm will also be raised,” said Resting. Resting said the Tsembisa App was already working and he made a demonstration of how it operated. The person’s name, identification number, phone’s serial number, date of birth and last check-in time showed.

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