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A political debate has broken out over the Corona warning app. Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder considers the app, which supposedly helps health authorities control the Sars-CoV-2 virus, to be practically useless. “Unfortunately, the application is so far a toothless tiger. It hardly has a warning effect,” the CSU president said in the newspapers of the Funke media group on Tuesday. Therefore, a digital update is needed to exhaust all the possibilities for the Corona application to be effective ”. What exactly this update should look like, Söder left open.
Experts and other politicians defended the app’s value on Tuesday. “The app works fine in principle,” said Karl Lauterbach, a health expert at the SPD. Süddeutsche Zeitungwho was very surprised by Söder’s comment. The initial problems with the program have now been overcome and “further development is in full swing,” said Lauterbach, who himself belongs to a working group on further development of the application. The Federal Ministry of Health, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the companies Telekom and SAP, in charge of developing and operating the application, participate.
The Corona warning app has been downloaded around 19.8 million times since June. It is actively used by around 16 million people and warns users if they have had contact with an infected person. However, due to data protection regulations, infected individuals must actively report to the app if they have tested positive for Sars-CoV-2. Currently, 60 percent of users who tested positive broadcast their findings in search of warnings through the app.
Cross-border monitoring is now possible
An estimated 15,000 people shared their positive test results through the app, prompting warnings for other users. Currently, more than 500 new positive test results are added every day and entered into the app. This corresponds to around ten percent of all new infections and shows how much the number of cases is increasing, but also that the application is being actively used by more and more people and is becoming an important component in the fight against pandemic. “The application has been well received. Every chain of infection that is further interrupted by this is important,” said Gottfried Ludewig, head of the digital department of the Federal Ministry of Health.
Chancellor Chief Helge Braun (CDU) also called again Tuesday to use the Corona warning app. This is especially important in view of the increasing number of infections. “Wherever access point health authorities can no longer keep up with contact tracing, the corona warning app is the only instrument that still indicates corona contacts,” Braun said.
An update containing additional features was only released on Monday. Users can now enter their symptoms if they have been infected with Sars-CoV-2. It is also possible to track cross-border contacts. Originally, the Corona app was supposed to support apps from neighboring countries during the summer holiday season, but development was delayed. Initially, data is being exchanged with Ireland and Italy, with other countries to follow soon. With these innovations, Lauterbach is convinced that the app will show its true value in the second wave of the pandemic. Then you will be “a very important support”.
