Aarogya Setu alerted about 650 clusters

NEWDELHI: The Aarogya Setu predicted 650 potential coronavirus disease (Covid-19) hotspots correctly and more than 300 others that could turn into one, the government’s advisory body Niti Aayog said in a statement, while adding that close to 100 million people have now registered on it.

The tool is meant to speed up tracing of contacts of an infected person so that they can be isolated before they spread the disease further, but has become controversial due to the amount of personal data – such as location details – it requires and possible vulnerabilities in its design and coding that could expose such information.

With the new details, the developers now suggest the analysis of the data could be helpful. “Using syndromic mapping and trace history of Covid-19 positive people combined with their movement patterns and exposure of different regions to Covid-19, the Aarogya Setu team has forecasted more than 650 hotspots, in addition to 300+ emerging hotspots which could have been missed,” the Niti Aayog said.

In Maharashtra, the app identified at least 60 hotspots across 18 districts, the think-tank said.

Officials in Maharashtra, however, “already have this information with them,” said Pradeep Awate, Maharashtra’s state health surveillance officer.

Of the 130 hotspots predicted by theappbetweenapril13andapril 20, every one of them has since beendeclaredarealhotspot3to17 days after it was first predicted. This ability is a much-needed breakthrough and first of its kind in the world, said the Niti Aayog .

HT could not verify these hotspots since the agency did not release a list of these locations.

Since its launch on April 2, the app has seen 96 million registrations. It is now mandatory for people going to work during the lockdown period, which makes India theonlydemocracywherethetool is compulsory in some form.