Tokyo, June 13 (RHC)-- Japan plans to launch a smartphone app based on technology from Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google next week to help curb the spread of coronavirus by tracking close contact with those infected, the health ministry said.

Smartphones with the app installed can detect each other via Bluetooth short-range wireless and log those who have come in close contact.

If a phone user is found to be infected, people who spent more than 15 minutes within a radius of one metre of that individual sometime over the previous 14 days will be notified that they were in close contact with a coronavirus-infected person, and be prompted to seek medical consultation. 

Such a message will be sent only if the infected individual gives consent, and the person with a positive diagnosis will remain anonymous to the receivers of the notification.