Check in with the corona tracing app in the pub – that should be possible in two weeks! The Swiss Covid app will soon have an additional function, so to speak contact tracing plus.
Because now the app is receiving an update that many of us have already saved on our mobile phones so that they are warned if they have been around someone who has tested positive for a long time. Now it should make it easier to register in restaurants and at events – and the chain of infection can be tracked more quickly. According to the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG), the expansion will come at the beginning of July.
“NotifyMe” was designed by the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) together with Covid app developer Ubique and is thus aimed at superspreader events. On occasions or in the restaurant, you can check in using the QR code. If it then turns out that a black – or rather infected – sheep took part, all participants can be informed with one click. “On the one hand, this accelerates contact tracing. On the other hand, not only close contacts are notified, but everyone who was in the same place at the same time, ”says the BAG.
Integration in the Swiss Covid app
The idea is now to integrate NotifyMe directly into the Swiss Covid app. This is happening, among other things, at the request of the Green National Councilor Gerhard Andrey (45) from the canton of Friborg: “I demand that the extended Swiss Covid app be accepted by the BAG for check-in in places where registration is required. Especially in restaurants, where an unnecessarily large amount of data is collected with a proliferation of various apps. “
According to Andrey, the integration of NotifyMe not only speeds up contact tracing. It also provides protection from data octopuses. As with the Swiss-Covid-App, the data is anonymized and stored locally.
At Andrey’s request, the Federal Council also confirmed that NotifyMe will be integrated into the Swiss Covid app. The implementation is “close to completion”.
Still being consulted
For this, the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) only needs to Ordinance on a Covid-19 warning system for events to adjust. Until Wednesday, the ordinance was in consultation with the cantons and in the responsible parliamentary commissions.
As soon as the regulation is adapted, you can start. “The function becomes available with the automatic updates. All that is required is a one-time approval of the terms of use and data protection declarations, ”says the BAG to Blick. Voluntariness continues to have top priority.
Users decide for themselves
“The warning system supplements the existing contact tracing, but will not replace the collection of contact data for the time being,” emphasizes the Federal Council. This means that every guest, but also every event visitor, can decide for themselves whether he or she wants to use the app or not.
If organizers opt for the Swiss Covid app, they can decide whether the visitors themselves or only they should be able to send a warning to all participants. This is what the draft regulation says.