Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Aarogya Setu has not been a hit. Citizens in bigger and more densely populated states have not downloaded the contacttracing app in large numbers. Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal among others have recorded low registrations. Barring Union Territories Delhi and Chandigarh, most states have downloads in the range of 10-15 per cent of their population.
Government data on Aarogya Setu downloads and its comparison with 2020 projected population (UIDAI) discloses that only 15.7 per cent in Maharashtra and only 5.9 per cent in Kerala have downloaded the app.
Aarogya Setu is meant to track the spread of COVID-19 in the country through its users and alert those who may have come in contact with a positive person. It can also tell who is a suspect by using location tracking technology. So far, it has recorded over 17 crore downloads. Maharashtra and Kerala are among the states which have seen a large number infections in recent weeks.
Maharashtra alone is recording over 25,000 daily new cases. Chandigarh is on top in terms of downloads with 48 per cent. National capital Delhi is second with 46 per cent. Similarly, bigger States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have also registered only 10 per cent, 8.7 per cent and 9.2 per cent downloads of the respective states population.
Numbers are low in the southern states. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu have figures of 13.7 per cent, 12.2 per cent, 14 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively. Aarogya Setu was launched by the government as a major tool of contact-tracing last April.
As recently stated by the government, the app played a key role by identifying individuals at high risk at an early stage, thereby prioritising their testing and taking necessary medical and administrative measures’. It has helped in identifying more than 1 crore individuals (at risk) through contact tracing.
The positivity rate of Aarogya Setu is currently around 25 per cent, which means 25 per cent of the users (identified ‘at risk’ through contact tracing) turned out to be COVID-19 positive when tested, said the Ministry of Information Technology in a written reply in the Parliament.
The app has been developed by National Informatics Centre, with “privacy-first by design” as a key principle and it has implemented some of the best and widely accepted privacy features and practices, including anonymization, data minimisation, purpose and use limitation and data retention principles.
By default, all contact tracing and location information collected is stored locally on the user’s mobile device. This information is only uploaded to the app server if the user tests positive for COVID-19. The location information is also recorded when the user takes the self-assessment and it is sent to the server along with the user’s response for selfassessment.