A Japanese medical advice app provider is making a limited time offer of a free app that allows users to seek advice from doctors about the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The free service is provided by Agree, a company based in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, which operates medical advice app Leber

.

Users are asked to send information such as whether they have traveled to an epidemic area and when they have developed fever.

With about 120 doctors registered for the service, users receive advice in about 30 minutes about the urgency of their condition, such as they are suspected of having pneumonia and they should seek an instruction from a public health center.

Usually a fee-based service, the app became available for free from Jan. 12 following the spread of the novel coronavirus originating in China.

Sena Taga, a public relations official for Agree, said the company has received user feedbacks such as the app makes it easier to seek medical advice than seeing a doctor.

The app is also expected to prevent people who suspect coronavirus infections from flocking to medical institutions, according to Taga.

The app was launched in January 2018. It was offered free of charge for people afflicted by heavy rains in western Japan in July 2018 and a massive earthquake in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, in September the same year.

JIJI Press