A Public Health Blockchain Consortium (PHBC) has recently announced that it has developed a new blockchain platform known as VirusBlockchain.com to track communities that are free of COVID-19.

The PHBC is a consortium of health authorities, universities, health care providers as well as innovators. They strive to collect, safely store and analyze anonymous health data on blockchain health records. Their aim is to eradicate diseases and to improve the lives of people all over the world. The project will not only track communities which are free from COVID-19, but also other high-risk viruses, bacteria and fungi infections.

As it stands now, the project has no partners yet and it has opened invites for participants to join. The project claims it will present results from participating communities and workplaces at their conference which will be held next year.

VirusBlockchain.com will supposedly use certificates from security organizations and government bodies who monitor cases, to automatically identify communities that are deemed free of infectious diseases. The platform will integrate real-time information from virus surveillance providers with artificial intelligence geographical information systems. The obtained information would then be stored on a blockchain.

Ayon Hazra, is the CEO of Qlikchain, the administrator for PHBC. According to him, communities and workplaces can maintain such safe zoom status if access to anonymously identified persons are restricted, and movement to and from other safe zones are only permitted.

He added that, unlike traditional infectious disease surveillance which focuses on infected persons, this blockchain system rather monitors the movement of uninfected persons. He said the system restricts the return of such uninfected persons if they have passed through areas known to be infected.

With this system, people who have entered an infected area will be required to remain in a quarantine zone before they are allowed into a safe zone. This is quite similar to how citizens are being asked to self-quarantine when they come into contact with potentially infected persons.