WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lauds Aarogya Setu app, says it helped identify COVID-19 clusters

India's COVID-19 tracing app was launched by PM Modi on April 3. It was developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Moneycontrol News

October 13, 2020 / 19:02 IST

World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has lauded India’s Aarogya Setu app, saying that it has helped public health departments identify COVID-19 clusters and expand testing.

"Aarogya Setu app from India has been downloaded by 150 million users, and has helped city public health departments to identify areas where clusters could be anticipated and expand testing in a targeted way," the WHO chief said at a media briefing.

As reported by the Indian Express, Ghebreyesus also mentioned the contract tracing applications used in Germany (Corona Warn app) and the United Kingdom (the National Health Services' COVID-19 app), among others, that helped healthcare systems in tracing probable infected persons.

India's COVID-19 tracing app was launched by PM Modi on April 3. It was developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The main aim of the app was to help users in identifying whether they are at risk of being infected by the coronavirus by checking if they have knowingly or unknowingly come into contact with individuals that have tested positive for COVID-19.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lauds Aarogya Setu app, says it helped identify COVID-19 clusters

India's COVID-19 tracing app was launched by PM Modi on April 3. It was developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

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WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lauds Aarogya Setu app, says it helped identify COVID-19 clusters

India's COVID-19 tracing app was launched by PM Modi on April 3. It was developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Related stories

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