History as Nigerian firm develops rapid trace to tackle COVID-19

Rapid Trace, an innovative mobile app, key to the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) has been developed by Cadnetwork Enterprise, a fledgling Nigerian firm.

The app designed for Nigeria by Nigerians is free to download on www.rapidtrace.com.ng but currently available only on Android.

The mobile app features include: contact tracing; social distance enforcement; crowd control; self testing & QR; among others.

Darlington Onyeagoro, strategy consultant, Rapid Trace, said the mobile app was launched because technology is a common denominator in managing, mitigating the impact of the pandemic, restoring livelihoods and tackling similar challenges in the future.

According to Onyeagoro “contact Tracing — presently our nation has employed a manual means of contact tracing by asking about travel history but with the Rapid trace app, contact tracing will be enhanced with the use of GPS and Bluetooth technology. The app automatically pairs via Bluetooth with another that is in close proximity to it, e.g closer than 2m with respect to time (15 minutes). This makes contact tracing easy as people that were in close proximity with a sick person in the last 14 days are notified to quarantine themselves and go for testing”

“Enforcing social distancing this superb feature is enabled by the use of in-app proximity sensor technology. It automatically beeps when 2 users of the app are less than the required 2m apart. Also crowd control feature enables the user to know when areas are crowded by alerting the user. This functions using the heat map technology. Thanks to Google, we can get real time heat maps of different locations like Supermarkets, Malls, Theaters, Churches, Gyms, Parks etc.” he added.

With the launch of the Rapid Trace app, every citizen will have to self-test on a daily basis via the app and will also have the opportunity to answer relevant questions for kids and aged and the illiterate member of the family.

“Citizens will have to scan the QR codes of public places like eateries, supermarkets, theaters, malls etc. and also display their own QR code before they are granted access to public places. The Public QR codes allow us to quickly piece together where an infected person has visited for possible decontamination while the bluetooth data will tell us who they have been in contact with in the last 14 days.” Onyeagoro, stated

The Rapid Trace app is designed to remind users to taake the daily self-test to determine status; wear a face mask as they leave their homes; wash their hands frequently and use alcohol based sanitizers 4.Avoid touching their face, nose, mouth, eye etc; avoid crowded places.