The City of Vienna has developed the "Homecare" app to monitor home quarantines via a mobile app, and then collect and efficiently manage relevant volume of communication with citizens.
The app is dedicated to people that might have been in contact with the virus and have to self-quarantine at home and report their state of health on a daily basis to the local health services. This is especially important for citizens who have already been tested but are still waiting for the results.
The main objective is to relieve doctors and hospitals from unnecessary burden, as people with coronavirus symptoms can send information about their state of health via the app.
The mandatory daily telephone call all citizens tested positive to Covid-19 must do to their local health service provider to provide updated on the state of their health conditions can be replaced with this mobile app.
The data provided is encrypted and sent to the City of Vienna's Health Service, where it is analysed. In case symptoms become alarming (for instance, increasing fever), the doctoral teams are mobilized, and the patients provided immediate assistance and – if necessary – medical treatment.
After downloading the free app, citizens can activate it with a code provided by the municipality authorities. For this reason, access to the app is only available after contacting the City of Vienna's health service.
Moreover, the extensive use of this app should contribute to shorten the waiting times for test results, as the app makes it possible, for instance, to prioritize the tests for people with the most alarming symptoms.