As Latam balances protests and pandemics, Colombia launches Coronapp

[wd_hustle id=”InArticleOptin” type=”embedded”/]

Contxto – As Covid-19 makes its way into Latin America, some countries more so than others are taking precautionary actions. Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador and lastly, Colombia, have all already seen their first cases of coronavirus.

Colombia’s approach focuses on the prevention side. In fact, the country’s government is officially launching an app to help identify and eradicate the virus across the country, as well as centralize and provide transparency around the issue.

Coronapp—as the newly launched product will be named—is already available for Android and iOS devices.

Colombia’s president, Ivan Duque announced the details of the release. According to him, “the app will be called Coronapp-Colombia, which will be free to download.” Not only that, but it will also have support from the country’s main comms carriers so it won’t consume any data from people’s personal plans.

To date, the app has been downloaded more than 1,000 times. So, a wise preventive measure, but perhaps not enough uptake yet, if you ask me.

Catching the social justice bug

Along with the user’s basic information for sign up, the application also asks whether the user has participated in any mass events in the past eight days.

A pertinent question, given recent turmoil and protests all across the region. These many have allowed for the spread of the virus, giving infections a chance to grow exponentially without the proper preventive and tracking systems.

The app provides safeguarding tips, an updated map on drugstores and health institutions, as well as a daily control for potential symptom identification.

Colombia’s Health Ministry announced the country’s first case of Covid-19 last week, after a young woman arrived in Bogotá from Italy. She was most likely returning from Milan’s fashion week, the source of a couple of other cases have been identified in Mexico and Brazil.