Smart provides 540 smartphones with load to police manning checkpoints

The Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID) are expanding the RapidPass Project, an online registration service for frontliners helping in the fight against COVID-19, to cover the whole of Metro Manila.

File photo: Smart logo

To recall, RapidPass.ph is a website that provides FREE unique QR code that serves as authorization for frontliners like health workers and people delivering food, medicine, and other essential supplies to go through checkpoints quickly and securely.

The generated QR code can be printed on paper and placed on vehicles, or, saved on smartphones to be shown to uniformed personnel manning Quarantine Control Points (QCPs).

540 smartphones with load to police manning checkpoints

To make the service work Metro Manila, Smart Communications has provided 540 smartphones loaded with voice SMS and data packages to the DOST.

DOST will distribute the devices to the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the QCPs to read and confirm the validity of the QR codes being shown by frontliners.

We hope that this initiative of the DOST, DevCon, DICT and the IATF will provide a positive example of how we can fight the COVID-19 pandemic in a smart way, using digital technologies, said Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President and CEO and SVP & Head of PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups.

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