BATON ROUGE, La. (LOCAL 33/FOX 44) – Members of the Louisiana National Guard are testing a new app to track COVID-19 medical equipment and supplies.
This is version 2.0 of the ComTrac app. It was redesigned by six LSU students including Kai O’Neal.
“Making sure that process goes smoothly and efficiently as possible. So no matter what disaster happens all everything’s been accounted for everything to get to the people deserve to get to things like that,” said O’Neal.
The app was originally created back in 2012 after Hurricane Isaac for the Louisiana National Guard to follow hurricane response supplies. it uses location services in cell phones to track the goods.
Now, the plan is to track supplies needed during the coronavirus pandemic.
“So we added the ability to add PPE and ventilators into the app. So the guard who’s currently running missions daily to move these define ventilators and PPE across the state now have the ability to track that will will once we deploy this out in the field,” said Brant Mitchell, Director of the Stevenson Disaster Management Institute. Mitchell was also in the National Guard.
The Louisiana National Guard contributed $20,000 to help develop the app. It took the students six weeks compared the average development time of six months. Now, it’s time for Beta testing.
O’Neal said he’s proud of it.
“It feels good, knowing that I could have the ability to help out from home to this how,” said O’Neal.
Beta testing for the app is expected to take three to four weeks.
