Virusafe - Bulgarian app to prevent and assist in the fight against COVID-19
About this good practice
ViruSafe is a specialized platform to support the fight against the pandemic.
Virusafe gives users the ability to track their symptoms and health status daily, which in turn gives Ministry of Health a good overview of the spread of the pandemic. Users can also voluntarily share their location to enable institutions to act accordingly, in case of an emergency.
ViruSafe takes data from users, generating a map of hotspots where there are citizens with symptoms of COVID-19.
Each user is able to receive feedback on their health status based on the app's data from their General Practitioner, advice and best practices to follow to protect themselves from infection, as well as news about COVID-19 and access to detailed pandemic information. The idea behind keeping users informed via the application is to (a) make certain the information is solicited by the authorities and (b) that the information can be targeted to certain user groups (different locations, people who reported certain symptoms, etc.)
The application is part of the National System to fight against COVID-19, developed in collaboration of Scalefocus with four other IT companies (Software Group, Information Service, SAS, ESRI). It can be found also at https://data.egov.bg/ - the state-ran Open data portal that gives access to Bulgarian public data in open and machine-readable format.
ViruSafe is an application, which aims to help in solving the equation of how to overcome COVID-19 successfully.
Resources needed
This is a private business initiative, and the application has been submitted to Bulgarian government pro bono. The expenditures for its creation are not reported.
Evidence of success
Over 70 000 active users in the first few weeks after launching.
Potential for learning or transfer
The project is an example of an effective and timely collaboration between business and government to answer common grand societal challenges.
The application can be used for future pandemics and other humanitarian crises. It is created in a way that enables:
• integration with any platform (Government, private, volunteering, NGO, etc.),
• international use,
• Adding or changing the app languages, terms & conditions and general information without redevelopment,
• GDPR compliance
Further information
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Good practice owner
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