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Helped for the first time to discover unexpected cases of corona: the SwissCovid app. Image: keystone
SwissCovid Achieves What No Tracking App In The World Has Achieved Before
Thanks to the SwissCovid app, 13 cases of corona were discovered last month that no one suspected in Switzerland. According to the Federal Office of Public Health, no tracking app in the world has managed to do this.
“Now we have really been able to close the circle,” says Sang-Il Kim with joy. As the head of digital transformation of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) told the media on Friday, in the last four weeks, thanks to the SwissCovid application, 13 cases of corona have been discovered for the first time that are not they suspected otherwise. “In this way we have shown the sense of application,” said Kim in Liebefeld, near Bern. “Like the world’s first app.”
Specifically, the SwissCovid app led to the discovery of an infection in people who were not complaining of symptoms or who were already known to be at risk through classic contact tracing.
However, Sang-Il Kim restricted that the Android and iPhone application alone did not protect anyone from infections, such as wearing a mask or following the rules of distance and hygiene. However, the BAG representative appealed to the Swiss population:
Target: 3 million active users
Sang-Il Kim named “3 million active apps for fall” as the target of the SwissCovid app. The “very high download rate” of 25 percent by international comparison is already good. However, he is confident that there are more and more active applications, which is probably related to tourists. However, only half of the people requested by BAG have activated the app at this time.
On Thursday, the app ran on more than 1.5 million Android phones and iPhones. screenshot: bfs.admin.ch
To make the benefits visible to the user and increase them for each individual, BAG plans to add new features to the SwissCovid app soon. In this way, the authorities are implementing the results of a survey presented on Friday. According to this, the application suffers above all from the fact that it is not very present. The survey concludes that there are no big reasons against the app, but rather many individual concerns.
Poll leader Michael Hermann says: “Obviously, there is some kind of malaise.” For those who install the application, however, the benefit to the general public is in the foreground. “After all,” according to Hermann, 40 percent of those surveyed at the end of July would be willing to “install the app in the event of a sharp increase in corona cases.”
(aargauerzeitung.ch)
