Microsoft offer COVID-19 screen app for firms as they welcome employees to work

As the employees begin to return to work slowly, after the states begin to reopen, UnitedHealth Group and Microsoft are offering an app to help employers screen workers for COVID-19.

The ProtectWell app provides workers a series of questions to screen for COVID-19 infection or exposure, including asking for the employee’s temperature and if they are experiencing symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath.

The app will either clear them for work or direct them into a testing process that will notify both them and the employer of the results, according to a statement. The app is among a rush of new technologies aiming to help companies bring people back to work safely amid the coronavirus pandemic, including services by Appian, Collective Health, PwC and tech giants Apple and Google.

The ProtectWell app provides guidelines on physical distancing, personal hygiene, sanitation and more to help ensure a safe work environment. Microsoft and UnitedHealth, which are both using the app for their workers, are offering the service to U.S. employers free of charge. Companies who use the service will also be able to choose content specific to their industry and workers.

While Microsoft’s AI-powered health care bot drives the questions to screen for coronavirus in the app, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth maintains control over the health care data “in accordance with occupational health laws,” the statement said. 

States have begun easing lockdowns in varied ways and about 133,000 U.S. workers are expected to pour back into assembly plants that will open in the coming week, according to estimates by The Associated Press.

Roughly 36 million people have sought unemployment benefits in just the two months since the virus first forced businesses to close and shrink their workforces.