The Talented Team behind TraceEkee

Thursday 30th of April 2020

The Talented Team behind TraceEkee

Introducing TraceEkee, an app that supports the efforts to mitigate community spread of COVID-19 in the Maldives through community-driven detailed contact tracing. The application was developed by a group of Maldivians and was launched by Health Protection agency.

Technologist Jawish Hameed tweeted on 29th April, acknowledging the team that helped develop the app. He also said that it is based on the system used and open-sourced by Singapore. It does not log your exact location, only proximity to other users, and data is stored encrypted. Data is only sent to HPA when you explicitly authorize and choose to send it. More people using means higher effectivity.

By using bluetooth signals, the app detects encounters with other TraceEkee users and stores that data in encrypted form on your phone. It logs the nearby phone’s identifier, model, signal strength and time. All TraceEkee users are represented by a random, changing, encrypted identifier. If you had close contact with a COVID-19 case, the Health Protection Agency will seek and need your actioned consent to upload your encounter data for contact tracing analysis.

TraceEkee helps HPA find close contacts of the positive cases more quickly to provide guidance and necessary care at the earliest. Further, it will also keep you up to date on new developments and updates on COVID-19 in the country and guide you on ways to protect yourself. Do your part to help stop the community spread of COVID-19 in the Maldives by using TraceEkee, available on Google Play and App Store.