TEHRAN – Google Play has removed an Iranian application from its app store, claiming that it is suspected of spying on its users.

The Google Play’s move is rooted in a false claim made by the London based Farsi language channel Manoto’s presenter Nariman Gharib.

This is while Health Minister Saeed Namaki has said 14 million people have been screened through the application for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms as part of a national mobilization plan to curb the pandemic.

Namaki said on Monday that a significant number of those people had been screened over the past four days via the Health Ministry’s online platform – salamat.gov.ir – and the rest through phone calls, electronic health dossiers and two online health screening systems run by the ministry, Press TV reported.

“Out of the 14 million monitored for the coronavirus infection, some 73,435 had symptoms. After evaluations, 3,415 of them were referred to hospitals, out of whom 1,605 were hospitalized and the remaining were either discharged with prescriptions or sent to other centers,” he noted.

The screening process, he added, helped the ministry reduce hospital referrals by diagnosing and suitably addressing the cases of those vulnerable to infection, the individuals carrying the virus without symptoms and the people in contact with the infected.

MG