Some 12 million people in Vietnam have downloaded Bluezone, a contact tracing app to help detect Covid-19 infections, as of August 8, compared to 1.8 million as of August 2, according to statistics from the Department of Computerization under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

The number of Bluezone downloads increased to 12 million as of August 8. Photo: Zing

Hanoi, Danang, Quang Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Quang Nam, Thua Thien Hue, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, and Binh Duong are leading localities in the country in terms of percentage of Bluezone users out of total mobile subscribers. The total number of Bluezone users in these localities reached 4.5 million.

The top five localities, Hanoi, Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City, have totaled 3.68 million Bluezone users.

The MIC targeted to reach 50 million domestic users installing Bluezone by August 10. This is the minimum number for the app to be effective. The ministry will deploy many different solutions, including daily messaging, texting on mobile phone signals and voice tones for subscribers, who have not installed the application.

Vietnam is facing a complicated disease situation after the first locally-infected case was detected in the beach city of Danang on July 25. Since then, the Covid-19 progression has particularly been complicated in Danang and neighboring Quang Nam province. 

The pandemic started spreading to other localities including major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with the big influx of tourists from the beach city. Many cases have complicated travel and contact history.

Facing with the increasingly dangerous situation of the pandemic, the government gives the highest priority to controlling the contagion risk, as well as the accurate and timely updating of information for the people.

Since determining Bluezone as instrumental in tracing people’s interaction history, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has called on people in Vietnam to install the application.

Installing the Bluezone application would help people realize if they come into contact with infected people, be acquantances or not, thus reducing the number of people to be quarantined. Thousands of people would not have to undergo mass isolation when an infected case is detected. The application also detects cases of close contact in a timely manner and those who are asymptomatic.

Thereby, the larger the community of Bluezone users is, the lighter the workload of the front liners in the anti-pandemic battle.