Doctors and researchers maintain a new free app is helping to track the onset and progression of COVID-19 symptoms nationwide while identifying those at risk sooner and slowing the outbreak.
Officials said the COVID Symptom Tracker requests contributors answer a few simple questions about themselves and their current health, then check-in every day to report whether they’re feeling fine or have noticed any new symptoms. Participants can download the free COVID Symptom Tracker app on iOS from the Apple App Store or Android from the Google Play Store through https://covid.joinzoe.com/.
Dr. Andrew T. Chan, a physician-epidemiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is spearheading the research effort, officials said, in collaboration with Professor Christopher Gardner at Stanford Medical, healthcare science company ZOE and Professor Tim Spector of King’s College London, UK, where the app already has close to two million users providing critical information to researchers daily.
“It is clear that symptoms of COVID-19 can vary widely, with some individuals harboring the virus with minimal symptoms or symptoms such as diarrhea that could be mistaken for something else,” Chan said. “We know the reality is that there is a lack of available and timely testing of COVID-19. This may be a better way to find out where hot spots of spread are, new symptoms to look out for, and use as a planning tool to target quarantines, send ventilators and medical equipment and provide real-time data to plan for future outbreaks.”
Chan said by also tracking in real-time the experience of health care workers, health care providers, and researchers can do a better job of understanding how to protect crisis first responders.