The app is meant to augment the government’s effort in the fight against the global pandemic, and Dr Bawumia says that the gathering and availability of data has played a significant role in Ghana’s battle against COVID-19 so far.
The COVID-19 Tracker App is able to trace contacts of persons infected by the virus and show where they have been in recent times through various telephone-related data, and link such people to health professionals for urgent action to be taken.
After public concerns over the security of personal information required by the app to help in identifying and tracing persons who have come into contact with infected persons, Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful sought to reassure Ghanaians that the app is safe to download and that none of their personal data is being collected.
The Minister explained that on 23 March the President signed the Executive Instrument 63 on the establishment of emergency communication services and that this was now being set up with telecommunication companies by using the metadata behind phone communications.
The government says the app is user friendly and will be free to download on devices using Android and iOS operating systems later this week on ghcovid19.com.
