Analysis of the digital platforms developed by the Romanian Authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Abstract The pandemic caused an increase in the use of, and demand for digital public services, accelerating the digital transformation, which necessitated rapid development and deployment of various ICT systems. The Authority for the Digitalization of Romania in partnership with Code for Romania developed a number of six digital platforms for better management of the COVID-19 pandemic. They firstly created stirioficiale.ro, a platform that was used by the Romanian government to give Romanian residents trustworthy, up-to-date information about pandemic measures, guidance, and other important information. Following that, another 5 platforms were developed with the help of over 420 volunteers in order for the government to better manage the COVID-19 pandemic, with a total of six platforms forming an ecosystem that would be used by over ten million citizens across the country to access reliable information. The main objective of the article is to observe and interpret the analytics of the official platform datelazi.ro. After a formal request to the Authority for the Digitalization of Romania, the official recorded data was received and analyzed by the authors. The main results of the study show us that the visibility of the platform is low compared to the country’s population. However, due to the consistency of users in the fifth wave of the pandemic, it is reasonable to assume that there is a core use of roughly 10,000 residents who find this platform beneficial for information at this time.