Covid-19: only 72 alerts issued by the French government’s official contact tracing app
Launched in early June, the StopCovid France app has been downloaded 2.3 million times, according to the Health General Directorate (DGS) on Wednesday 19 August. However, only 72 alerts have been sent since then.
The app has not been as successful as expected
StopCovid is a tracking mobile app that is supposed to trace the contacts of people infected with the coronavirus. Launched on June 2, it was described as one of the major tools available for authorities to control the epidemic after the lockdown.
However, it is far from having achieved the results hoped by the government.
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“1,169 QR codes have been used and 72 risk contacts notified”
Since its launch, the StopCovid app has been downloaded 2.3 million times, the DGS told the Agence France-Presse on Wednesday, August 19. It turns out, however, that it has only sent seventy-two alerts.
“To date, 1,169 QR codes have been used and 72 risk contacts notified,” the DGS said.
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Why is there a major gap in the numbers?
The QR code allows the user to declare himself as a coronavirus patient to the app, by scanning the code provided during a positive test.
The low use of the tool at the population level or in the circle of the infected person may explain the difference between the number of reports and the number of notifications.
It is also possible that an infected individual may not have installed StopCovid until after receiving his test result, the media reports.
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“The app is effective as long as a person and their contacts have it”
The DGS made a point of recalling that “the app is effective as soon as a person and his contacts have it”. It, therefore, continues to urge the French to download it. Underlining that it must be available on their smartphone before testing.
The purpose of the app is to keep track of people met for an extended period during the last 15 days, at less than one meter, before a positive test to warn them in case of infection.
The StopCovid France app is available on the Apple App Store and on the Google Play Store.