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In eleven EU countries, users of corona warning apps will be able to anonymously compare their contact details across national borders this fall and thus receive warnings of potential infections. Other countries will follow soon. A corresponding interface for smartphones in a first group of countries has been active since the beginning of this week, according to the European Commission in Brussels on Tuesday. The gateway will connect to the databases of the respective national Corona warning applications on October 17.
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The new system was initially tested with six countries; the goal is to have eleven EU countries in a “first wave” by mid to late October. First, Germany, Italy and Ireland will be linked. Then it is the turn of Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Holland, Poland and Spain. The order depends on the technical developments of the different warning applications and regulatory issues in the respective countries.
To do this, users must update their applications and give their explicit consent for data sharing at the EU level. You can then decide if you only want to receive the national data, the data for selected individual states or the EU data set. The encrypted data packet contains the contact IDs of users who have registered as Corona-positive in their applications.
France, where coronavirus infections had recently risen particularly sharply, is not among them at the moment because those responsible have opted for a different technical concept. Representatives of the EU Commission stressed that all EU countries are expected to be able to join “as soon as possible”.
More than a million people died from Covid-19
The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has risen to more than one million worldwide. That comes from a new census from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. However, the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher, as testing for the virus is inadequate or patchy in many countries, the number of cases is not correctly reported or some countries cover the true extent of infections. More than 33.2 million infections were officially tested.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter that an egregious milestone had been reached. The number is speechless. “But we must never lose sight of every human life.” The dead were “fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues.”
About a fifth of all recorded deaths occur in the United States, where more than 205,000 people have died. More than 142,000 people have died in Brazil and more than 95,000 in India. The number of victims in the United States, where about 330 million people live, is the highest in the world to date. However, in relation to the number of inhabitants, the number of deaths is higher in some European countries. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, about 63 people died for every 100,000 people in the United States, and this figure is slightly higher in the United Kingdom. In Spain there are 67 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, in Germany eleven.
The Hopkins University website is regularly updated with detailed data and therefore shows a higher level than the official figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). In some cases, the figures have recently been revised downward again.
WHO wants to distribute 120 million corona test kits to poor countries
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the poorest countries should receive around 120 million corona tests. Manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor have agreed this with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced. The tests will be available for a period of six months.
Tedros emphasized that the tests would show after 15 to 30 minutes whether a person was infected with the Covid 19 pathogen or not. With other testing methods, people would have to wait days for results. In addition, the tests are very cheap at five US dollars (4.30 euros) per unit. The WHO chief stressed that the price would still drop.
The Czech government wants to re-impose the state of emergency
In view of the increase in the crown number, the Czech Republic wants to re-impose a state of emergency. That is certainly necessary, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš of the populist ANO party said Monday night on Nova television station. It assumes that the cabinet will meet in Prague on Wednesday in a special session to decide on this step. The state of emergency was in effect for two months in the spring and expired in late May. Among other things, it allows the government to suspend civil rights such as freedom of assembly. Courts can also impose higher penalties.
More than 4000 new infections in France
On Monday, France reported 4,070 new infections. The seven-day average is now more than 12,000 cases for the fourth day in a row. The Health Ministry also announced that the number of deaths increased from 81 to 31,808.
As the number of cases increases, the Netherlands is introducing stricter measures. For the first three weeks, restaurants and bars must close by 10 pm and spectators are not allowed at sporting events. Prime Minister Mark Rutte also called for people to travel as little as possible and prefer to work from home. According to his information, the number of new infections each day could rise to 5,000 after the current around 3,000.
Vice President Timmermans of the EU Commission in quarantine
The Vice President of the EU Commission, Frans Timmermans, quarantined his home after having close contact with a person who tested positive for the coronavirus. The Dutch politician announced on Monday with the short message service Twitter. Work from home. “I will stay there, wait for the necessary tests and fulfill the required quarantine period,” wrote the top EU politician.
Timmermans is not the first EU politician to go into quarantine due to a corona infection in his environment. Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides of Cyprus announced on Sunday evening that she was going into quarantine because one of her contacts had tested positive for the corona virus. “I have no symptoms and I feel fine,” Kyriakides wrote on Twitter. Now she works from home, the result of a test is still pending.
Last week, several politicians were indirectly affected by the corona cases. On Wednesday, the vice president of the EU Commission responsible for trade, the Latvian Valdis Dombrovskis, announced that he would be quarantined as a precautionary measure due to a Covid 19 infection in his neighborhood. Previously, the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel, was also quarantined because a security officer was infected with Covid-19. The special EU summit scheduled for last week was postponed for a week. Michel has now left his quarantine after a negative test.
The Foreign Ministry in Berlin had recently announced that the Federal Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, had also quarantined one of his bodyguards due to corona infection. The precautionary measure should apply to Maas until October 4.
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