An Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), jointly developed by the State Health Department, Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, IIT-Madras and Department of Telecom, Government of India, was launched in Chennai on Thursday.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the IVRS facility through videoconferencing. The Chief Minister said this was one more step towards controlling COVID-19 pandemic. The advantage of this system is that it does not require internet connection and people can converse in their mother tongue, a press release said.
According to the release, anyone can give a missed call to 94999 12345. The system would call them back and ask simple questions. Based on the replies provided by them, it would give the appropriate advice on COVID-19. People can provide information on their health status, symptoms of COVID-19, and if they had conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
Based on the replies and by analysing their place of residence, the initiative would facilitate transfer of information for further action. The district emergency control room would step in for providing appropriate assistance including despatch of ambulance depending on the condition of the callers.
It would categorise them as low-risk beneficiaries, medium-risk beneficiaries and high-risk beneficiaries. For those in the low-risk category, health advice on hand washing, physical distancing and keeping surroundings clean would be provided. For those in the medium-risk category, the district emergency control room would provide required medical assistance. Disease prevention and control measures would be carried out through the control room for high-risk category persons.
Mr. Prasad said “Arogiya Sethu IVRS” was already launched but was confined only to smart phones. Now, it was available for non-smart phones too, the release said.
