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The application can be downloaded for free on a mobile phone.
Scotland’s new contact tracing app to help fight the spread of the coronavirus has been launched.
The Scottish government has said that the software will support the Test and Protect system and is “another tool in the fight against Covid-19”.
The Protect Scotland app lets people know if they have been in close contact with someone who then tests positive.
It can be downloaded for free on a smartphone from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged as many people as possible to participate in the new search plan.
She tweeted Thursday morning: “There is a new way to help fight Covid in Scotland. ‘Protect Scotland’, our confidential contact tracing app, will anonymously notify app users that it has been with. in close contact, in case it tests positive.
“Please unload and let us protect Scotland.”
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Until now, contact tracing has been done manually using a method followed for years to help control the spread of infectious diseases.
Scotland has followed Northern Ireland in choosing to use the suite of tools provided by Apple and Google to create a contact tracing app that has privacy built in. Both have moved quickly by using software developed for the Ireland app.
At first, Scotland seemed inclined to work with the NHSX England applications team, who for months searched for a centralized application that would collect more data, without the cooperation of the tech giants.
But seeing some complicated technical issues with the English app, they decided to follow many other countries by going the Apple Google route.
A person close to the Scottish project said that “using something that the tech giants had created was easier than trying to create it ourselves.”
England has also finally changed course and has been testing an app based on Apple’s Google toolkit for the past month on the Isle of Wight and the London Borough of Newham.
But there is no word on a national launch yet, and it appears that England, which once viewed a contact tracing app as a vital weapon in the battle against the virus, is now happy to be a follower rather than a leader in it. technology.
With 64,000 downloads by 09:00 on launch day, the Test and Protect team feels their app is off to a good start, but the real question is whether it will help speed up warnings for people who may have been close to someone infected with the virus.
It will be weeks before we know if the app is an effective tool.
The new app uses Bluetooth technology to alert users if they have been in prolonged close contact with someone who subsequently tests positive for Covid-19.
When an individual initially tests positive for the virus, they are contacted by phone in the usual way.
The contact tracker will ask them if they are users of the application and if they are willing to use the upload function of the application to alert nearby contacts anonymously.
If they agree, a unique code will be sent to their mobile that unlocks this feature in the app.
By sharing your positive test result in this way, the information will become part of an anonymous database.
The app on other users’ phones regularly checks this database to see if they have been in contact with an infected person.
A warning is automatically issued when a match is found, and then users are urged to test or self-isolate for 14 days.
