VizibleZone is an Israeli startup whose smartphone app alerts pedestrians to potential dangers, and gives automatic notification of Covid-19 exposure in the workplace. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
By Abigail Klein Leichman
Zenger News
As pandemic restrictions ease and more workers return to their workplaces, employers are seeking a way to detect when someone infected with Covid-19 is on site.
VizibleZone, an Israeli startup whose original product is a smartphone app that alerts pedestrians to potential dangers, is offering a solution to that problem by creating an app that gives automatic notification of Covid-19 exposure in a workplace.
Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, said it will use VizibleZone’s newest product in its factories and plants.
“We chose VizibleZone’s solution to allow our employees to safely maintain routine activity at sites across the country during the corona pandemic,” said Shimon Rosh, Mekorot’s head of Covid-19 safety. “The technology allows monitoring of exposure and an epidemiological investigation as necessary, while fully preserving our employees’ privacy.”
Here’s how it works: Employees install a smartphone app that monitors their proximity in real time without tracing locations, thus maintaining privacy. If a Covid-positive employee is detected, the technology tracks all relevant employee interactions three weeks prior, alerting any coworkers who require quarantine. The goal is to minimize isolation to those who were in closest proximity.
Company managers can use an accompanying dashboard tool to generate epidemiological investigations at workplace indoor and outdoor workplaces, thus enabling factories and buildings to maintain business continuity.
“Keeping businesses open and functioning is a critical aspect of emerging from lockdowns and getting economies back on track,” said VizibleZone CEO Gabi Ofir.
The new app is in keeping with VizibleZone’s overall mission of offering products that turn mobile phones into lifesaving devices using context-sensitive data collected and processed by the phones.
