Vodacom and Samsung donate 20,000 smartphones to the South African government to help fight COVID-19

Vodacom Group has partnered with Samsung to provide 20,000 smartphones to the National Department of Health in South Africa to help fight Coronavirus (COVID-19). The telco is also providing 100 terabytes of data and 10 million voice calls minutes to be used by frontline health workers to collect and transmit data in real-time for resource planning purposes.

“Through this initiative, Vodacom seeks to support government’s objectives to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus by flattening the curve and lowering the infection rate. ” Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, said.

”Achieving this will require a massive collaborative effort and we’re delighted with Samsung Africa’s investment of 5000 smartphones into this initiative. ”

This latest donation announced by Vodacom will also assist the South African Government by ensuring that medical care resources are efficiently and effectively distributed to help those who are infected or require critical medical assistance. Each of the 20,000 smartphones will be loaded with 5GB of data and 500 voice minutes to be used to facilitate the immediate collection and transmission of data to the National Department of Health COVID-19 Information Centre to assist with resource distribution planning. Samsung Africa will cover the cost of 5 000 of the 20 000 devices.

“As Samsung we are conscious of the increasingly important role technology will have in the fight against COVID-19. Our frontline workers need to be equipped with secure smart phones that enable quick contact tracing and communication in order to slow down the rate of infections in the country. ” said President & CEO of Samsung Africa, Sung Yoon.

”Dealing with the pandemic requires a strong collaboration between Government and the private sector and we are honoured to have been able to contribute on this project with Vodacom. As a partner to South Africa we also wanted to acknowledge the Government’s efforts to date and are committed to assisting where we can,”  he added.

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