COVID-19 mobile Contact Tracing app launched

UGANDA | COVID-19 | CONTACT TRACTING

Researchers from Makerere University have launched a COVID-19 contact tracing mobile app for truck drivers to enable public health surveillance and contact tracing easier.

Adrian Muwonge, a Chancellor's Fellow (assistant professor) at the University of Edinburgh with a connection to Makerere University, stated that it was essential that something is done about it.

"The app was created, tested, and found to work as intended to support health workers easily trace truck drivers who are subjected to so much monitoring and inspection for COVID-19 pandemic," said Muwonge.

While officiating the THEA-DCT (Digital Contact Tracing Tool) at the Golden Tulip hotel in Kampala, Muwonge noted that they took that opportunity to make digital tools to enable them to stay on their jobs in case of any outbreak of another variant.

Adrian Muwonge a Chancellor’s Fellow (assistant professor) at the University of Edinburgh with affiliation to Makerere

He said that the THEA- DCT product tracing, uses the mobile phone to send information to health workers indicating the driver’s situation.

“It also helps to locate all the people the drivers had contacts with,” Muwonge said.

Ibrahim Mugerwa from Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Unit, Ministry of Health said that the app will help to protect the public since it allows public health intervention in the day-to-day truck driver’s activities hence curbing the scourge of the pandemic. 

“The app will also capture the vaccination status of truck drivers,” he said.

The tool demonstrates the ability to provide linkage and smooth interoperability with test results and vaccine certificates as electronic copies,” he revealed. Adding that this has shown possibilities for inclusion of digitalized other notifiable diseases to ease tracking of cross border diseases.

Some of the stakeholders involved in the unveiling of the app

Robert Emmanuel Ssebaggala, the Technical lead for the development of the technology revealed that truck drivers don’t have to worry about their privacy because the tool makes sure to keep it intact. 

The Government of Uganda through its Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, Ministry of Works and Transport, Ministry of Health, and Makerere University Biomedical Research Center (MAKBRC) under Prof. Moses Joloba as the Lead Principal Investigator supported the THEA project. 

The work was also supported by the University of Edinburgh and funded by the National Institute for Health Research and Medical Research Council of the UK.

It is important to note that the tool is not only limited to Uganda but can also employ internationally.