Morocco to Launch ’Wiqaytna’ COVID-19 Contact Tracing App

The Moroccan app for tracing the population during the coronavirus period would be ready. It will be launched in the coming weeks. Trials are underway at the Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), the kingdom’s largest employer with 25,000 employees. The announcement was made during a virtual press conference held last Monday. It was jointly hosted by Abdelhak El Harrak, Governor Director of Information Systems and Communication at the Ministry of the Interior, and Mohamed El Youbi, Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control at the Ministry of Health.

Presenting the app, El Youbi stressed that this IT solution, called "Wiqaytna", is part of the strengthening of the system for notifying contacts of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases. This will allow the management of contacts before the appearance of symptoms, to avoid complications and deaths and to limit the transmission of the virus and its spread in society, he said. The app will be based on the exchange of the user’s identity via Bluetooth between two smartphones. One for the person declared positive for COVID-19 and the second, in contact, for notification of his care, explained El Youbi. "Wiqaytna" will allow Morocco to take measures and decisions to contain the virus and prevent Moroccans from entering the third phase of the epidemic. The kingdom’s health system will be able to ensure rigorous identification and monitoring of contacts thanks to this application, said the Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control at the Ministry of Health.

For his part, Abdelhak El Harrak indicated that "Wiqaytna" is a 100% Moroccan product and downloadable on Play Store and the AppStore. He specified that "Wiqaytna" was developed on the basis of the principles of collective intelligence, innovation and flexibility by a team of 40 people from different public and private sectors, with the voluntary participation of a group of emerging national companies. Abdelhak El Harrak reassured that for the protection of personal data, the application will only be used for the duration of the pandemic and the stored data will be destroyed after the pandemic.