Rapid Review of Available Covid-19 Mobile Apps

Abstract

Background: On 11th March 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) declared the state of a pandemic for COVID-19, requiring a global response to manage and control the transmission, spread, and impact of this pandemic1 which threatens human lives, employment, and the global economy2. COVID-19 is the first pandemic to occur since the widespread use of smartphones, even in low- and middle-income countries3. Thus, for the first time, the collection of individual-level data in near real-time directly from affected community members is possible using health-related mobile applications. Government and private companies have launched applications and websites all over the world with aims that can include informing populations to support behavior change or appropriate health-seeking behavior, tracking transmission hotspots, or in support of test and trace/contact-tracing interventions. For COVID-19 patients, or persons concerned about infection risk, apps can help with remote assessment and the provision of care. For people not infected, especially persons at high risk of being affected (e.g. elderly or persons with comorbidities), mobile apps can provide an access to routine care without the risk of exposure in hospitals. If successful and implemented at a sufficient scale these applications have huge potential to inform global and country-level responses4. The various purposes of such applications can be categorized into symptom checkers, information dissemination, news updates, quarantine enforcement5, remote interaction with medical professionals6, reporting of test results, contact tracing, and even showing locations of individuals with positive test results known nearby infections7. As a first step in evaluating the potential opportunities, benefits, and risks of apps designed with the intention or ability to collect COVID-19 related data from the general public we conducted this rapid review of what mobile and web-based applications are currently available with this functionality and a summary of their key features. Objectives: Aim: To provide a resource of what applications are currently available globally in which the intended user group/s includes the general public and from whom data is collected with the potential for analysis supporting the pandemic response. Result: The survey was completed by 589 volunteers between 1st May to 2nd September 2020. Data were reported from 57 countries. Seven countries did not find any applications related to COVID-19 which included Afghanistan, Armenia, Ghana, Philippines, Serbia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe (Table 1). Of all 309 available applications, 45 applications (14.6%) are available in Asia. 109 applications (35.3%) in Europe, 10 applications (3.2%) in Oceania, 24 applications (7.8%) in South America, 54 applications (17.5%) in Africa, and 67 applications (21.7%) in North America. 132 were reported to be available on the Android platform, 158 on the IOS platform and 19 reported to be available on both platforms in the same country. Developer information was not reported for 35 applications (11.3%). Users review scores evaluating the applications were available for 261 applications (84.5%). Most applications are free to install and to use all the functions (276 apps, 89.3%).