The World Health Organization (WHO) has rolled out its mobile app, ‘WHO COVID-19 Updates’ to give the latest COVID-19 guidance and reliable information from health experts and other trustworthy sources.
Earlier in April, WHO had launched a mobile app completely focused on coronavirus updates but shortly after release the agency pulled it from the app store as it was not meant for public use.
According to reports, the WHO COVID-19 Updates app functions almost similar to the original mobile app released by the public health agency earlier this year. It is designed as a general-purpose app to provide safety guidance and up-to-date information from reliable sources to make the public aware of the prevailing conditions and thus to control the spread of the virus.
The app further gives the latest local news and information and real-time notifications, based on the location of the user. It helps the users to keep track of regional, national and global coronavirus cases and deaths with the up-to-date count on the home screen display.
The app also gives links to learn about the basic hygiene practices and to let users to donate to WHO’s COVID-19 Response Fund. However, it doesn’t offer features including contact tracing that is quite common among the apps released by several governments across the globe.
The Check-Up tab in the app gives a detailed list of serious and mild symptoms related to COVID-19. To give accurate travel guidance, the app has included a Learn tab. It also has a feature to list myth busters and answers common questions around COVID-19.
The WHO COVID-19 Updates app is compatible with both Android and iOS devices. Currently, the app is only available in Nigeria and is expected to release in other English-speaking countries soon.
