Mobile Applications to Fight against COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In order to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic the government of Saudi Arabia launched three mobile applications namely Tetamman, Tabaud & Tawakkalna to keep the public aware about the corona virus and ensure monitoring of the suspected cases. The objective of this study is to curb the spread of COVID-19 by enhancing social measures and investigate the role of mobile applications in achievement of this objective. Comprehensive review of the role of mobile applications was made and a survey approach was used to evaluate the effectiveness of these applications. Findings of the study indicate that the users perceive that the applications are successful in achievement of the objectives for which these applications were launched. The key performance indicators (KPIs) included in the survey were efficiency, ease of use, satisfaction of users, fulfilment of purpose, usefulness and helpfulness etc. The average number of respondents, who agreed that these applications are performing according to the mentioned KPIs, is 86.6% for Tetamman, 80.5% for Tabaud and 90% for Tawakkalna. More awareness campaigns are needed so that more people adopt the use of these applications, which could significantly help in identification of new casesand enhance telehealth and teleconsultations. Moreover, the applications should be upgraded for self-triage.

Privacy Preservation of User Identity in Contact Tracing for COVID-19-Like Pandemics Using Edge Computing

“…developed applications [45]. Tawakkalna [46], TraceTogether [47], CovidSafe [48], among many others [45], use a centralized architecture. However, this type of architecture has a single point of failure and faces privacy issues, as central servers are able to link users' identities and their contact tracing regardless of infection [7,45].…”

Pandemic-Driven Technology During COVID-19: Experiences of Older Adults

“…Mobile technology and mHealth solutions has been leveraged in numerous communities to control the spread of the coronavirus [2,12]. Social pandemic-tracking apps support several functionalities such as contact tracing, selfassessments of symptoms, and enforcing social distancing, which are used to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus [9]. The use of such applications in several communities were mandatory to engage in any social activity [17].…”

“…Several studies have been conducted amid the COVID-19 outbreak focusing on technology use and mHealth [2,9,12], learning [7,23], and social issues and privacy concerns [3,7,10,19,24,31]. We see a need to explore and deeply understand the challenges faced by older users of such social applications.…”

“…Research investigating pandemicdriven technology is growing [2,12]. New and innovative COVID-19 mobile apps and solutions has been introduced within the past 15 months to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus (e.g., Tawakkalna [9] (Figure 1), Health Code [33], and NHS COVID-19 [18]). However, the adoption and use of such technology comes with it is own challenges.…”

“…Social issues and privacy concerns are being discussed within the HCI and CSCW communities with respect to such pandemic-driven technology [3,7,10,19,24,31]. Hidayat-ur-Rehman et al [9] evaluated the performance of three COVID-19 mobile apps used in Saudi Arabia. The findings show that such applications are effective and their performance is good.…”