A new study suggests that the use of contact tracking systems has helped save thousands of lives in the UK. The survey published by the magazine “Nature” stated that around 9,000 people were rescued in England and Wales Applications NHS Kovid-19, which uses a disease risk reporting system developed by Apple and Google. Brazil has a similar solution with the Coronavirus-SUS app, but it has not Very successful due to lack of explanation and proliferation of equipment.
a The research Shows that the NHS app, the British public health system, may have saved the lives of 4,200 to 8,700 people – the UK has recorded more than 128,000 deaths so far from the Kovid-19. According to the study, each percentage increase in application usage resulted in a decrease of 0.79% of cases.
“Our analysis suggests that a large number of Kovid-19 cases were prevented by contact tracking via the NHS application, ranging from approximately 100,000 to 900,000, depending on methodological details,” the study noted.
The researchers assessed the use of the app between September and December 2020. In total, 16.5 million people installed the application (equivalent to 28% of the UK population), and 1.7 million exposure notifications were sent.
Integration with tests
The study suggests that the integration of applications with the COVID-19 tests was important to control the spread of the disease. This is because “tests are done automatically through app trigger actions, without the need for the user to enter results into the app”, which speeds up contact tracking.
In addition, the study theorizes about how the functionality of applications contributed to their effectiveness. The survey shows that people who installed the app maintained social distance above what they would have done had they not had the app, because they would have known that “it monitors distance and quarantines later May recommend “.
“Smartphone use is already global and therefore, privacy-protecting contact tracking applications should be integrated into the public health toolkit,” the study concludes.
In Brazil, the app failed due to lack of use
A lot of people didn’t even know, but in March 2020, the government released the app Coronavirus-SUS, which later came to undertake contact tracking. The operation was similar to the NHS app, that is, it would be possible to detect when someone came to you using the Bluetooth feature of a cell phone.
However, it The national app “flopped” basically because no one explained how the device works And because there is no campaign showing the benefits of the application.
Coronavirus-SUS began using Apple and Google technology in August last year. It was revealed mainly on the YouTube channel of the Ministry of Press and Health, which at the time was viewed less than 10,000 times.
Little disclosure may be reflected in the minimal adhesion of Brazilians to the resource. As of April this year, Coronavirus-SUS had 61.5 million downloads, according to Tilt data from the Ministry of Health. But by February 2021 there were only 2.3 million active users, i.e. less than 1% of the Brazilian population.
However, Claudio Miselli, professor of systems and computer engineering at the UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), does not attribute the failure of coronavirus-SUS to mere lack of disclosure. He claims that contact tracking comes against a technical problem that troubles Brazilians: battery of batteries smart Fone.
“In general, Brazilians generally don’t keep Bluetooth on, because it drains the battery. The app makes sense from a technical standpoint, but in practice, perhaps, it won’t be enough for Brazil,” he explained. .
Another issue raised by them is that every Brazilian has a smartphone and the SUS app has limited compatibility – to use it, one must Iphone At least iOS 13 or a. with Cell With Android 6.0 or higher.
