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There were high hopes that this technological solution would complement or even enhance classic contact tracing. The SwissCovid app, developed at the Lausanne and Zurich ETHs, sets international standards when it comes to privacy. What did he bring after six months in the field?
Manageable usage figures
Almost 1.8 million users have activated the app so far. So a fifth of the population. In the first few months, new users were constantly added. However, the number has stagnated since October.
Epidemiologist Marcel Salathé helped develop the application. The upper limit of users has probably been reached. – A shock absorber for him? “No, that is not a brake, it became so apparent that one could have expected a certain increase in the number during the second wave. But that did not happen. So I don’t think this will change in the coming weeks and months. “
Overloaded plotter
Another construction site: to warn other users of the application, you need a so-called Covid code. But the cantonal contact trackers that must issue these codes were overwhelmed by the increase in the number of cases. The codes took too long to reach the users of the application.
From the onset of symptoms, the Covid code comes in half of the cases the same day, or after one or two days. In the other half of the cases, however, it takes more than 3 days.
“You have to try to lower that,” says Marcel Salathé. “Because every day that passes is a day in which the person in an infectious state cannot be informed. And therefore the virus can be transmitted. “
After all: starting next year, older smartphones like the iPhone 6 will finally be able to download the app. A technical adaptation from Apple makes it possible.
