This app is trying to help monitor the coronavirus pandemic

Each week, we spotlight a cool innovation recommended by some of the industry's top tech writers. This week's pick is an app that tracks coronavirus symptoms.

An app designed in just a few days to track the spread of coronavirus symptoms is sending data on 1.2 million users to epidemiologists, said Thomas Brewster in Forbes. The ZOE Covid Symptom Tracker "asks people to upload their rough location and the details of any ailment they're suffering." The information is then anonymized and sent to scientists at the U.K.'s National Health Service and at University College London.

ZOE's app is one of several tracking apps that have been created to help monitor the pandemic. An Israeli app, Hamagen ("shield" in Hebrew), compares users' location data with data stored by the government on the location of known coronavirus infections and warns people if they have been in close proximity to a known carrier.

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