The Centre has made the use of Aarogya Setu app compulsory for all government employees to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission and improve the safety of all Government officials.
The Department of Personnel and Training through its office memorandum has directed the all the officers and staff working in the Central Government to download the Aarogyasetu App on their mobile phones. The employees must check their daily status before leaving for work on the app, and commute only if the app shows a ‘safe’ or ‘low risk’ status.
The app calculates the level of risk based on the Bluetooth proximity with any person who has been found infected with Covid-19.
In cases where the app sends a notification of moderate or high risk, the person should abstain from going to work and self isolate himself for at least 14 days. Unless the app shows a safe and low risk status the isolation should be maintained.
The Ministry has also directed the Joint Secretary of Administration to ensure that the app is used by the employees and directions are followed by everyone concerned. The Ministries can also ask employees of other statutory or autonomous bodies to follow similar directions.
The Report on the Action taken by the authorities in this regard are to be sent to the Joint Secretary of the Government of India.
Aarogya Setu is a mobile application that has been developed by the Government of India to connect essential health services with the people of India its fight against COVID-19. The App is aimed at augmenting the initiatives of the Government of India and the Department of Health, in proactively reaching out to and informing the users of the app regarding risks, best practices and relevant advisories pertaining to the containment of COVID-19
The app keeps record of all other AarogyaSetu users that it detected nearby using Bluetooth, and also a GPS log of all the places that the device had been at 15-minute intervals.
It provides its users with a colour coding of green and yellow based on their self assessment. The data of those in the yellow category are uploaded to the server, and the ones in the green category are retained in the app.