As many as 15.7 million people have downloaded Bluezone, a domestically developed contact-tracing mobile app to identify and alert people who have interacted with Covid-19 patients, as of August 11, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Nearly 16 million Vietnamese people install Bluezone. Photo: MIC

The number of downloads has increased by 15.5 million from July 25. There are one million downloads on average a day.

The beach city of Danang, a Covid-19 epicenter in Vietnam, took the lead among localities nationwide, with 34.13% of smartphone users installing the app, followed by Hanoi (23.83%), Quang Ninh province (22.61%), Ho Chi Minh City (22.05%) and Bac Ninh province (17.84%). 

The top five localities have totaled 4.8 million Bluezone users as of August 11, compared to nearly 3.7 million registered until August 8.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that localities should enhance communication on Bluezone among local people so as for the app to be fully utilized. The ministry targets to have 45 million active Bluezone users out of the country’s 76.8 million smartphone users.

The Bluezone app allows smartphones in close range to communicate among them using Bluetooth. The communication data could later be used for contact tracing of Covid-19 cases. 

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. Bluezone would help authorities quickly identify people who are likely to be exposed to Covid-19 patients, helping prevent larger outbreaks of the disease.

As of August 13, Vietnam has confirmed 883 Covid-19 infection cases, 421 of whom were declared clear of the virus.