I have questions around this policy why are all the apps in the App Store related to COVID-19 not allowed in the store? Also what is defined as "governmental entity, hospital, insurance company, non-governmental organization, or university. " These are not defined
Also user "information in highly-regulated fields, such as healthcare, should be submitted by a legal entity that provides these services, and not by an individual developer.
I'm reaching out to see if other App developers experienced the same situation or how anyone for that matter can publish anything on the COVID-19 to assist users?
Guideline 5.1.1 - Legal - Privacy - Data Collection and Storage
We found in our review that your app provides services or requires sensitive user information related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis, services and information related to it are considered to be part of the healthcare industry. In addition, the seller and company names associated with your app are not from a recognized institution, such as a governmental entity, hospital, insurance company, non-governmental organization, or university.
Per section 5.1.1 (ix) of the App Store Review Guidelines, apps that provide services or collect sensitive user information in highly-regulated fields, such as healthcare, should be submitted by a legal entity that provides these services, and not by an individual developer.
Next Steps
To resolve this issue, your app must be published under a seller and company name of a recognized institution. If you have developed this app on behalf of such an institution, please advise your client to add you to the development team of their Apple Developer account. If your client does not yet have an Apple Developer account, they can enroll for one as an organization through the Apple Developer website.
Resources
For additional details, please refer to the update on the Apple Developer website about Ensuring the Credibility of Health & Safety Information.
I believe this just means that you have to submit your app as an organisation developer account, not individual developer account.
This will require you to submit all required information to that effect, particularly, DUNS, which globally identifies business entities.
In some other cases you may be required to also submit other information in some areas such as legal accreditations / other regulatory information if you're in a regulated industry such as healthcare, financial services, or gambling (as mentioned above) these should also be provided during the sign up process.
