A Hyderabad-based software development company filed a PIL petition in Telangana High Court on Monday seeking a direction to the State and Central governments to consider availing a mobile application it had developed to track persons showing symptoms of COVID-19 or affected by it.
A bench of Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice T. Amarnath Goud told the directors of the company to first approach the government and other officials concerned and present their proposal. Citing the rising coronavirus positive cases in different States of the country, the company said the situation was dangerous than perceived and should not be brushed aside.
Since majority of the COVID-19 positive cases were reported among persons who returned from abroad or foreigners landing in the country for different purposes, it was crucial to monitor them. The company claims the mobile application it had developed would help the governments to monitor the movements of persons who contracted coronavirus or are showing its symptoms.
The application can be used by mobile phones having android, or iOS (of apple iPhones). Google and Apple companies, the company maintained, have the details of geographical coordinates and movement history of the mobile phones using the two operating systems.
If these two companies, which were made as respondents in the PIL petition, were directed to provide the details of the respective mobile phone numbers, it would be easier to monitor the movement and location of the users (persons who contracted COVID-19 or showing its symptoms). Using this data and synchronising it with the movement history of the mobile phone users, ‘danger or hot zones’ can be mapped and publicised to ensure coronavirus did not spread further, the company said.
