Israel’s Health Ministry has launched a new smartphone app intended to help the whole country stay informed on the COVID-19 coronavirus and its spread in Israel.
Titled CoronApp it includes updated public health guidelines; announcements by the ministry on the latest restrictions, limitations and quarantine requirements; an option to report self-quarantine; reports on locations visited by recently diagnosed patients prior to their quarantine; user-submitted questions and ministry officials’ responses; and more.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Health Ministry took unprecedented steps on Wednesday to delay the spread of the deadly coronavirus, sending 50,000 into quarantine with strict new rules that could see as many as 100,000 forced into home isolation for a two-week period.
The huge spike in quarantine numbers is the result of a new list of countries put on the list for which home isolation is required. Israelis returning from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Spain now fall under the new guidelines.
Israel currently has 15 diagnosed coronavirus patients, with thousands more under 14-day isolation due to potential exposure to the sick or after return from numerous countries judged to be potential hotzones.
The app, available to the public for both Android and iOS, is currently available with English-language menus but its content is in Hebrew.
Esti Shelly, director of Digital Health at the Health Ministry, told Channel 12: “Digital tools are an inseparable part of the ability to confront the pathogen’s outbreak in Israel.”
Sources: Times of Israel / CUFI
