Czech mobile operators to trace movement of coronavirus patients to aid health authorities

Prague, March 18 (CTK) – Mobile operators and IT companies will help the Czech sanitary authorities trace the whereabouts and contacts of those infected with the new coronavirus, Jiri Grund told CTK on their behalf today, referring to an agreement between them and state representatives.

Health Minister Adam Vojtech (for ANO) and chief sanitary officer Jarmila Razova have signed the deal on the state’s behalf, said Grund, the executive head of the Association of Mobile Networks’ Operators.

With the consent of the infected owner of a cell phone number, the operators will tell the state where the person stayed in the past two weeks. They will not provide information about other people’s mobile data to the state, however, Grund said.

“The government will help the overburdened sanitary bodies. It has approved the plan to trace the infected people by means of technologies as prepared by the COVID19cz team in cooperation with all three mobile operators. We thank all who have helped,” Vojtech tweeted earlier this afternoon.

This afternoon, the Covid19.cz group of Czech IT firms, together with sanitary bodies, want to launch a special call centre for calling the infected and the people who were in contact with them.

The group also wants to help with the data analysis and with making information accessible.

“We have completed an analytic instrument that will take the infected person’s data (with his or her consent, otherwise we would not reach the data) and is capable of using them to reliably detect the person’s whereabouts and contacts who should therefore be tested [for coronavirus],” the group has written on its website.

“This method will help stem the COVID-19 infection and at the same time it fully respects high privacy protection standards,” said Grund.

The initiative has been joined by companies such as Seznam.cz, Alza.cz, Keboola, Pale Fire Capital, O2, mluvii, Clevermaps, Cesko.Digital, Liftago, Stories.bi, DataSentics, Dateio, Expertkom, Actum a WMC/Grey. The firms previously helped the state launch a special phone line 1212 that provides information about coronavirus.