BENGALURU: Though the Ministry of Home Affairs has eased the earlier restrictions it placed on the mandatory use of the Aarogya Setu app in offices, the State government on Thursday said all government and private employees must install it.
At least that’s what Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said: “Government employees across the State have to mandatorily install the app. They will not be allowed into the offices otherwise. Private companies including the IT sector will also be asked to do the same.”
On May 17, the Home Ministry issued fresh guidelines saying “with a view to ensure safety in offices and workplaces, employers on best-effort basis should ensure that the application is installed by all employees having compatible mobile phones.” Dismissing doubts about data breach and privacy issues, the minister said that 63 lakh people had already downloaded the app in Karnataka out of which 2,255 users got Red flag alert through the self-test feature.
“In all, 233 people have been tested and 17 were positive. This means 7.5% of people who got tested following the App alert have tested positive for Covid-19,” he said. “People need not panic as the data about the positive patients will be held by the district task force heads of the respective districts,” the minister added.