Taiwan is working to develop an app that would help people maintain social distancing, as part of its efforts to contain the COVID-19 coronavirus, Chien Hung-wei (簡宏偉), director of the cyber security department under the Cabinet, said Saturday (April 11).

When the app is released in a week or two, it will issue an alert on people's mobile phones if they get too close to each other, Chien said.

It will also provide information about crowded venues so that people could avoid entering, and it will give the users data on how often they came too close to others during each day, he said.

Under the social distancing guidelines issued by Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), people are advised to stay at least one meter apart outdoors and 1.5 meters apart indoors.

As Taiwan and most other countries throughout the world are battling against the COVID-19 pandemic, the social distancing app is being developed based on a directive issued in mid-March by Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), Chien said.

Since then, the cyber security department and other relevant government agencies have been working on the app, using bluetooth technology, and it is now in the initial testing stage, Chien said.

He said the information on people's movements will be encrypted and the data collected by the app will not be used to investigate people's footprints.

Furthermore, the use of the app will be completely voluntary, while its sole purpose is to help protect people from the coronavirus disease, Chien said.

On Saturday, Taiwan reported three new cases of COVID-19, all classified as imported, which brought its total number to 385, with six deaths, since the virus outbreak began at the end of December 2019.