Wellvis, an on-demand health information and service platform has developed a web app called COVID-19 Triaging App to help people determine the risk factor of them having Covid-19.
According to the health startup, the app which also gives advice on Covid-19, could help you determine if you need to call the Disease Control Hotline or not.
Over 380,000 infected with Covid-19 globally
Since the Covid-19 broke out a few months ago, the rate of infection and fatalities caused by the virus across the globe has continued to increase. Currently, there are about 386,962 recorded cases of infection and about 16,750 deaths.
Spreading even faster and similarly as destructive as the virus is the panic caused by the virus. Despite efforts by health organisations to educate people about the virus, the panic surrounding the virus has caused major problems.
Other problems associated with the panic include scarcity of health equipment like face masks needed by infected and health practitioners due to binge shopping.
And most significantly the overcrowding of hospitals as a multitude of people throng to the hospitals in panic. This makes it difficult to find space for those who are actually sick or infected with the virus.
Italy which is one of the worst-hit by the virus is among countries afflicted with crowded hospitals due to the virus panic.
Italy has 63,927 reported cases of infection and 6,077 recorded cases of deaths.
Wellvis’s COVID-19 Triaging App is, however, going a step further to help people showing basic symptoms to self-examine and find out if they are really at risk of getting the virus. This could help greatly to mitigate panic and also prevent hospital congestion in the process.
With these inherent benefits, I reviewed the web app to see how it works.
The COVID-19 Triaging App is free
The COVID-19 Triaging App is free to access and will launch on any web browser either on Andriod, IOS or Windows. The app comes with an option of two languages, English and French.
After choosing your preferred language, it brings out a landing page that informs you that the app can determine your Covid-19 risk factor, then prompts you to get started.
Once you have started, the app asks a series of questions starting from if you have a fever with a body temperature of above 37 degrees centigrade. The questions come in objective format with Yes, No or Not sure options
After answering that first question, it asks further questions about Covid-19 symptoms like ‘Do you have a cough?’ and ‘Do you have difficulty breathing?’
From there it asks a series of questions about if you have visited virus hot zones like China and Italy or been in contact with someone that did in the last 14 days.
It also asks if you have been to places like hospitals where Covid-19 infections have been reported.
COVID-19 Triaging App helps you determine your risk of Covid-19 infection
After that, the app takes all the pieces of information given and provides a result that shows if you have a high risk of infection. it also provides instructions like stay calm, isolate yourself from your friends and family in cases where the risk report shows high-risk of infection.
The app instructs infected people to call the list of virus emergency numbers provided by countries. The emergency numbers for five countries – Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Gambia and Cameroun are provided.
It also provides a link to chat with a doctor on Wellvis as well as links to frequently asked questions and prevention tips about Covid-19.
In summary, the COVID-19 Triaging App by Wellvis not only gives advice on Covid-19, it also uses basic background questions doctors/nurse will ask suspected Covid-19 patients in the hospital to deduce the risk factor of a person being infected.
This can help reduce the number of people visiting the hospital by providing an alternative that can be used from the safety of homes. It can also help reduce the spread of the virus by using its reach to advise persons who didn’t know they were probably infected to isolate themselves.
So if you are feeling worried or scared with the growing number of infections in the country you can try out the COVID-19 Triaging App, it will show you the risk factor of you being infected.
