How presidential adviser on Health 'dodged' question on whereabouts of COVID-19 tracker app

To date, there has not been any clear update on the whereabouts of the Tracker App that was launched by the Ministry of Communication in 2020, to help trace people who have come into contact with the coronavirus, as well as a way of mitigating the consequences of the pandemic.

While the minister-designate for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has indicated that they paid no money towards the development of the said app, little more has been said about the app which was supposed to be available on android and iOS devices after it was launched in April 2020.

But, given an opportunity to respond to the whereabouts of the app, after he indicated government's plan to develop another app that would help people make appointments towards the coronavirus vaccination, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Presidential Adviser on Health, used an intelligent answer, completely off the question asked, to elude answering the question.

This transpired on Newsfile, JoyNews' news analysis program on Saturday, February 27, 2021, after host, Samson Lardy Anyenini, quizzed him on the app.

The conversation below begins with Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare providing some perspectives to an earlier question on monitoring.

Nsiah-Asare: "We are going to have an app where people can book an appointment and you'll be sent an SMS message that it's time for you to come for your immunization, especially the second doses after 8 weeks. We've segmented the population into groups and we have also done what we call geographical segmentation, using the data that we have but we are starting from the hot areas

Samson: "You mentioned an app. We know that there was supposed to be this contact tracing app which people have said didn't amount to anything really; we didn't see anything about it. It was just sprung on us and nothing really was done. This app, is it being developed, is it in and how is it going to work?"

Nsiah-Asare: "We see about two or three people who have shown us simple apps we can use to let people register and people come for the immunization. And, you remember that during the registration, getting to the end of the registration, the Electoral Commission also developed a very simple app where people were using it to book appointments. So, we're looking at all these things.

"So, starting, we'll use the data that we have to do the announcements, to do the people in the villages will also hear from their communication centres and we'll use the mass media, we'll use the information service division and in addition, those who can the app can go on the apps and book appointments and go and have their immunizations," he said.