Mandatory to best effort basis: Aarogya Setu app rule eased for companies

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs has asked employers to ensure that the government’s contact tracing application, Aarogya Setu, is installed by all employees having compatible mobile phones on a “best effort basis”. This is part of its Lockdown 4.0 roadmap and is a major easing up from earlier when all employees had to mandatorily install the app and where the company’s management had to ensure 100% coverage.

Earlier, any negligence, if proven, on the part of a director, manager, secretary or any other executive would have led to punitive measures. The MHA notification on Sunday asked district authorities to “advise individuals” to install the Aarogya Setu application on compatible mobile phones and regularly update their health status on the app. “This will facilitate timely provision of medical attention to those individuals who are at risk,” the notification said. “The Aarogya Setu mobile application is a powerful tool built by government to facilitate quick identification of persons infected by Covid-19, or at risk of being infected, thus acting as a shield for individuals and the community,” it added.