Having launched a WhatsApp Chatbot earlier this month to combat rumor-mongering and fake news related to the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is now set to launch a whole new app with news, tips, alerts and more regarding the deadly virus. Expected to be named ‘WHO MyHealth’, the app is being developed by a group of volunteers working as the ‘WHO COVID App Collective’, which includes former Google and Microsoft employees as well as WHO advisors and ambassadors, along with other industry experts.
The open-source app, the code for which has already been uploaded to GitHub, will be available on Android, iOS and the web sooner rather than later. It will be rolled out globally, but will offer information tailored to the user’s “location, culture and language”. According to the developers, “The App will provide users an engaging, integrated, accurate, personalized and tailored (i.e. age, location, language, culture, education level) related information on COVID-19 from trusted, validated sources. Crowd-sourced data from the App will be shared with WHO with user permission”.
The upcoming app is just the latest initiative in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic that many healthcare professionals are describing as the single largest health crisis of our generation. Governments, healthcare experts and companies from around the world are doing their best to address the crisis in their own ways by offering monetary help, creating online information hubs, donating medical supplies and various other means. In fact, the Indian government has just launched its own coronavirus app called ‘Corona Kavach’ on Android.
