Attending were representatives of the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Health, enterprises of Bkav, VNPT, Viettel; press and media agencies; and representatives of the Department of IC, Department of Health and Police Departments of 63 provinces and cities.
Delegates attend the seminar at Binh Duong bridge point
Following the Prime Minister's direction on unifying and developing a single pandemic prevention and control app, under the chairmanship of 3 Ministries: Health, Public Security and IC, the National Technology Centre for Covid-19 Prevention and Control has collaborated with enterprises to urgently develop PC-Covid app.
The PC-Covid app has key features such as: Issuing, managing personal and location QR codes, scanning QR codes, health declaration, domestic movement declaration, people's feedback, vaccination information, testing information, Covid-19 card, close contact tracing, movement density, infection trends, risk map, etc. The app is considered to effectively support people in daily activities, more convenient when participating in pandemic prevention and control.
From September 30, the PC-Covid app has been available on the Apple Store and Google Play Store. If the user has installed Bluezone, just update to version 4.0, the app will automatically convert to PC-Covid. In case Bluezone is not installed on the phone, users need to download the PC-Covid app on the Apple Store (for iPhone users) and on CH Play (for Android phone users). In addition, users can install the app at pccovid.gov.vn.
PC-Covid app is available on the Apple Store and Google Play Store
At the seminar, leaders of Ministries, branches and a number of agencies and units answered questions from press agencies related to some limitations and inadequacies of the PC-Covid app. According to Deputy Minister of IC Nguyen Huy Dung, the features of PC-Covid will be continuously updated and adjusted under the direction of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control and users' feedback to bring the most convenience to the people, in line with the Covid-19 prevention and control strategy in each specific period. The Ministry of IC will promulgate specific documents to guide localities to deploy the app.
According to the National Technology Centre for Covid-19 Prevention and Control - the PC-Covid operator, the PC-Covid app does not record nor use the user's location. When the user installs the app on the Android operating system and activates Bluetooth, the device will ask for location permission. This is due to Google's policy when turning on Bluetooth BLE the device will automatically ask for location permission. However, PC-Covid does not use that right.
The PC-Covid app only stores contact history data on the user's device and does not collect location. Contact history data is only used to serve health authorities with the consent of the user or in case the user is an infected or suspected case. User's data for analysis and tracing of infected cases and suspected cases will be stored and secured by Government agencies and only used for the purpose of helping people protect their health and fight the pandemic, absolutely not for commercial purposes, not to infringe on privacy.
Reported by Phuong Chi-Translated by Nguyen Trang