Here's how Andhra Pradesh govt is using technology to contain coronavirus

As the number of coronavirus cases in India continues to rise, the government of Andhra Pradesh has adopted a modern and unique idea to protect the people in the state and contain the spread.

The government is using two tools that have been developed by the State Disaster Management Authority with the assistance of other agencies for this task. While the first tool tracks each person in-home quarantine in real-time, the second one tracks the travel history of those who have tested positive for coronavirus.

How it works

Called the COVID-19 alerting tracking system, the first tool is used by the authorities to track over 25,000 people who have been placed under home quarantine. This tool helps the authorities to track the location of their numbers realtime with the help of telecom service providers and mobile tower signals.

Authorities have a database of mobile numbers of all these 25,000 people and by taking the base location as the location of the residence of the respective person, the tool alerts the district authorities if the person travels beyond a 100-metre radius from the base location thereby violating the norms of home quarantine.

Upon receiving the alert, the authorities then get in touch with the violator asking him to get back and do the needful. If the violator refuses to get in touch with authorities, the matter is escalated and the state authorities then jump into action.

The authorities are using this tool to ensure that each person placed under home quarantine abides by the guidelines.

The second tool is being used by the authorities to track the travel history of all the positive cases using the same data and mobile tower signals.

A patient's phone number is used to find out all the places that the person has travelled to. After receiving the locations of the patients, the authorities are narrowing down on the places where the patient has spent at least 15 minutes.

The tool is playing an important role in helping the authorities track local transmission, setup red zones within a 2-3 km radius and sanitize. 

All the locations that 20 of the positive cases have visited so far have been mapped.

It is learnt that Telangana, Bihar and Odisha governments are also planning to follow the Andhra Pradesh model and tools in their attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus in their states.