Contact tracing app ‘eSalvar’ starts

NAGA CITY --- The local government unit here has launched on Tuesday, Sept. 1, “eSalvar,” a contact tracing application for close contacts of confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive patients to minimize the spread of the virus in the city.

“eSalvar” is an online application that will complement manual tracking with a digital database to expedite contact tracing of close contacts of Covid-19 positive individuals through timely and accurate information. The app will record the places where a person went using his/her digital identity code.

During the launching of the application on Tuesday, Mayor Nelson Legacion said the QR Code will serve as a person’s secure digital ID that would help in the achievement of “more efficient, non-privacy intrusive contact tracing efforts” leading to a more effective management against the transmission of Covid-19 in the city

Magno Conag III, NUECA chief executive officer has assured the public that no one knows the identity of the person behind each code. It will be known only when that person was in the same place at the same time as a suspected Covid-19 positive person.

“The information will only be known by the concerned person and our contact tracers who are governed by the Data Privacy Act,” he said.

The city government is urging all city residents and those living in other places who work and do socio-economic activities in Naga to register and download their own QR card by logging on eSalvar.com The QR card ID, downloadable on the “eSalvar” website, will address the long queues in malls and other commercial establishments where customers are required to fill up with personal information contact tracing forms or logbooks, which is time consuming.

The app “eSalvar” is also seen to speed up the traditional way of undertaking contact tracing activities. “At every incidence of infection, we need to know its source and the people who may have been exposed to it. We do this thru phone calls and face-to-face interviews and depend on the memory of people to fix the date, time, location, and frequency of contact. It is time consuming and sometimes inaccurate or incomplete,” Legacion said.

As of 6:00 PM of Sept. 2, over 95,000 individuals have registered and joined the contact tracing application.