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Qatar tribune

Tribune News Network

Doha

Supreme Committee for Crisis Management Spokesperson Lolwah al Khater dismissed the privacy concerns surrounding the COVID-19 risk detector app introduced by Qatar recently.

The information collected through the Ehteraz smartphone app will be available only to concerned medical staff, she told Al-Arabi TV in an interview on Monday.

The app uses "the GPS feature and Bluetooth” to perform various services that enable authorities to identify transmission chains and alert health officials and individuals at risk of COVID-19 infection.

Khater said once an Ehteraz user is diagnosed with COVID-19, the app traces all places that the person visited in the recent past as part of identifying the transmission chain.

This is part of the precaution to contain the spread of the pandemic, she added.

“We encourage people to download the application, but so far the decision to do so is optional,” Khater said.

On Qatar’s plan to lift the lockdown in the Industrial Area, Khater said the closed-down streets would be opened gradually.

The lockdown became inevitable after a transmission chain was identified in Al Sanaya, she said.

“We are keen on ensuring the well-being of the people in the Industrial Area and every other region in the country,” she said, adding that three health clinics have been allocated to serve the needs of the people in Industrial Area.

More than 3,000 tests have been conducted so far in region, she added.

At least 1,000 vehicles enter and leave the area every day to transport food, sterilisers and disinfectants, Khater said.

On lifting the nationwide restrictions imposed on some aspects of life and commercial activities, Khater said, it was difficult to predict a timeline for the return of normalcy in Qatar.

“We place community health at the forefront of our priorities,” she said.

“Countries across the world are now imposing similar restrictions. They will be lifted and normality will be restored gradually in Qatar, but not at the expense of people's health.

“Perhaps, this ordeal will help us to rearrange our priorities. Formalities dominated the lives of many of us before these crises. Perhaps, many have discovered that they do not mean much.”

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13/04/2020
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