On 9 April 2020, the Lebanese University (LU) and a number of partners in the Ministry of Economy & Trade registered “LUCOVID19” application, which will contribute in fighting COVID-19 transmission and limiting its spread. The app was submitted to the Minister of Health, Dr. Hamad Hassan who expressed his consent thereto.

The application will save time for the Ministry of Health carrying out tests for COVID-19 patients, and limit the number of suspected cases, by rapidly collecting the numbers of people who encountered the patient before he was diagnosed, which will reduce the possibility of spreading the infection in the coming months and help definitively contain the disease.

The application was designed by a team consisting of Dr. Elie Hadchiti, Head of LU University Medical Center, the graduate of the LU Faculty of Science, Randa Chirfan (Software Engineer at Elbarid), Elias Al Zayed (Master in Graphic Design & Technical Director at Elbarid) and Bassam El Fata (BS in Administrative Informatics & Market Development Manager for "Qatar, Bahrain & Levant" at Citrix).

The developers explained the app functionality as follows:

Upon insertion of COVID-19 patient contact on LUCOVID19, the app schedules the phone number of people who met with the patient during the last 14-days period and who represent suspected cases. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health communicates with those people and urges them to perform PCR tests.