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In the confinement, hopes for the technology were high. A program on the cell phone should protect Switzerland from the second wave of viruses. There were media reports with headlines like “Via cell phone out of lockdown.” Even the sober “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” headlined: “How a smartphone app could stop the virus.” The experts also listened to this horn, albeit with a little more caution. Digital epidemiologist Marcel Salathé said that if the number of cases were to increase again, we would be much better prepared because: “The contact tracing application in particular makes a big difference.”
Today, in the middle of the second wave, the Swisscovid app only plays a marginal role. Even Il-Sang Kim, who heads the app project at the Federal Office of Public Health, admits it. He says: “So far, at least 220 people who were tested due to an application warning have tested positive.” A small number, with nearly 100,000 positive tests in October alone. The application only runs on 1.9 million mobile phones.
Will the BAG soon issue the CDs itself?
The software works fine, the problem is the low number of users. But the application also has problems with other points. For months there have been reports that cantons issue codes that need to be entered to warn contacts too late after a positive test. The problems are not yet resolved and as the number of cases increases, they get worse. Over the weekend, Switzerland knows of a person who tested positive on Thursday and received the code on Monday. Salathé says: “Of course it is a big problem. Ideally, the Swisscovid app would be a super fast way of contact tracing. That’s why we have to improve it. “Official federal government statistics show: In one in four cases, it takes six or more days from the onset of symptoms for the code to be issued. At which time contacts can be contagious.
Il-Sang Kim, Head of the Department of Digital Transformation at FOPH.
© Keystone
Il-Sang Kim, head of the digital transformation department at FOPH, offers the possibility of a solution: “We are about to allow doctors and hospitals to issue the codes themselves. That saves a lot of time. “The new regulation has already been agreed with hospital and medical associations, but participation must be voluntary. Therefore, medical professionals could refuse to issue codes. Then the canton has to take over again. According to Kim, the Federal Office of Public Health is also verifying if the BAG could issue the codes itself.
The low number of cases is puzzling. In a representative survey commissioned by SRF in the spring, two-thirds of the population said they wanted to install a tracking app. The developers of the application fought with full commitment to ensure that the software meets all requirements: anonymous, decentralized, simple. The monitoring concerns are completely unfounded as the application’s source code has been exposed so that anyone can see what the software is doing on the phone.
“Not everything went as expected in terms of communication.”
All wishes have been fulfilled and yet the number of users is much lower than expected. What went wrong Marcel Salathé, intellectual father of the application and professor at ETH, corrects in an interview: “Technically, we were able to implement almost everything we wanted. Not everything went as planned in terms of communication. At first, much more was said about the surveillance fears than about the help the app could offer to fight the pandemic, Salathé says. It is aimed primarily at the media. In addition, the timing of the launch at the end of June was not ideal: “It was one of the days with the fewest cases of the whole year. People expected a relaxed summer and didn’t want to think about Covid. “
ETH professor Marcel Salathé is the intellectual father of the Corona app.
© Keystone
Were your hopes for the app disappointed too? “Yes and no,” says Salathé. “The application can do even more, especially when the number of users increases. But even now it’s great support for manual contact tracing. We have also always said that the application is not going to be a pig that lays eggs. “
The people in charge of BAG seem to have done everything possible to get the app out to the people. Il-Sang Kim, head of the digital transformation department, says: “For example, we are repeatedly accused of not advertising enough with influencers. We asked a lot of influencers and celebrities. Of course, we also carry money in our hands. “But he was quite surprised:” Many people did not want to participate because they were worried that their image would be damaged. For example, because their fans wrongly fear the surveillance of the application. “
Kim also says, “Yes, the app could have worked a lot better.” Both he and Salathé still hope to increase the number of users. “Now that the virus is becoming more common, we see significantly more active applications,” says Salathé. In October, the number increased by around 200,000 to around 1.8 million. But he’s been there for a week or so. Has the plateau been reached? Kim says it is possible. “But we are doing everything we can to increase the numbers.”
