A screen gab of the PC-Covid Việt Nam app on Google Play Store. — VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The national unified COVID-19 prevention and control app PC-Covid Việt Nam, was made available on iOS’ App Store and Android’s Google Play Store for smartphones on Thursday.

The app replaces Bluezone, the previous contact tracing platform, and is still in Beta phase.

Smartphone users who already installed Bluezone can head to the respective app stores to update PC-Covid with full functions, available in both English and Vietnamese.

PC-Covid will become the single app for all COVID-19 prevention and control activities in the country, after Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính ordered relevant authorities to unify many separate apps for vaccine certificates, travel permits, health declaration, and contact tracing into one following public complaints of inconvenience.

It has been added with all functions of the previously-launched apps such as VHD, Bluezone and NCOVI.

Particularly, the PC-Covid provides the “COVID-19 card” to users who have fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or recovered from COVID-19, enabling them to travel and join social activities in the new normal period.

A QR code included in the app will serve as a single personal code used in all apps and platforms related to pandemic prevention and control.

A representative from the Ministry of Information and Communications said detailed requirements for green, yellow and red COVID-19 cards will be issued by the Ministry of Health.

Major functions of the app include showing “COVID-19 card” status, making health declarations, searching for COVID-19 vaccination information and testing results, supporting movement tracking, indicating a map of risks and providing news on overall pandemic prevention and control strategy.

However, the app will not replace the “Sổ sức khoẻ điện tử” (electronic health records) app, which serves long-term overall medical activities of users and not just for COVID-19.

After being available for download on Thursday morning, many users have complained of long-delayed reception of OTP codes to activate their profiles/accounts, unsynchronised status of vaccine statuses, and other bugs.

Nguyễn Huy Dũng, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, told the media that due to ramped up efforts in vaccination, many localities – especially ones with large populations like Hà Nội, HCM City, or Cần Thơ – have not yet managed to fully update vaccinated people’s information to the national COVID-19 vaccination platform.

Information of about 20 per cent of the actual number of vaccinated people is still missing on the platform.

Also, due to the nature of paper forms and writing quality that might lead to variants in names and telephones between each input, the actual shots that some people have received might not be reflected on the platform, and technicians are working to remedy the issues.

The app has a feedback channel to address complaints from users, Dũng said. — VNS