ZCZC
BSS-55
COVID-19-PRE-TEST-APP
Bangabandhu Parishad launches app for COVID-19 pre-test
DHAKA, April 06, 2020 (BSS) – Bangabandhu Parishad’s Dhaka city chapter today said they developed a COVID-19 pre-testing app enabling individuals to gauge they are carrying coronavirus symptoms by clicking their computer.
“The app is expected to discourage people to crowd hospitals just being led by their suspicions of COVID-19 infections,” convener of the unit Sardar Mahmud Hasan Rubel said.
He said someone with minimal IT expertise could use it which would require one just to clique on “yes” or “no” options in response to some simple questions set on the app addressed — http://bbpbd.org/self-test-covid-19-18
Rubel said the app was expected to concentrate hospitals or COVID testing facilities more on people who were really exposed to the coronavirus infections.
He said launching of the app was part of their organisation’s multi-thronged anti-COVID campaign that included reaching of succours to people in need during the ongoing crisis.
The unit described the app as “COVID-19 SELF TEST’ mechanism which would give its users some advises as well, depending on the pre-test results.
Rubel said if the app detected anyone with severe symptoms, and no doctor is found to attend the patient, the organization would also extend its service to that person through telephone.
“We are providing the service from 9am to 12pm and we think for the time being, it is our main programme of Mujib Year,” he said.
Rubel said though the virus was yet to take a pandemic shape in Bangladesh panic gripped people prompting many to rush to hospitals with normal flue or cough, exposing themselves to transmission of real COVID infections.
“We want only (real) coronavirus patients to go to hospitals and take treatment,” he said.
The chapter said they launched their anti-COVID campaign from the second week of March distributing face masks and hand sanitizers among general people alongside food to the poor or rendered jobless particularly at Kalabagan, Karwanbazar, Dhanmandi, Hazaribagh, Demra, Motijheel and Bongshal areas.
It said the organisation also was distributing personal protective equipments (PPEs) among doctors and different materials to different social and religious institutions.
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