After Schleswig-Holstein, the federal states of Brandenburg, Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also do not want to extend their contracts for the use of the Luca app. The Luca app is intended to help restaurant owners and event organizers to record visitor contacts, which is required by law in most federal states, without paperwork. A total of 13 federal states have signed contracts with the Luca operators Culture4Life/Nexenio.
The Brandenburg Ministry of Health (MSGIV) justified the non-renewal with data protection problems and the fact that, according to a survey from last year, only one of the 18 health authorities used the app regularly. “Hence our recommendation from the MSGIV to end the contract,” said Health Minister Ursula Nonnemacher (Greens) on Friday when asked by the dpa. The BZ had previously reported about it. Brandenburg has provided around one million euros for one-year app use in 18 health authorities, the contract runs until the end of March.
No added value for Bremen
According to health senator Claudia Bernhard (left), Bremen wants to terminate the contract because the use of the Luca app in contact tracing has not shown any great added value. The health department in Bremen only asked for data ten times, she quotes the NDR in a report.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will not extend the contract, which expires on March 12, either, as the Ostsee-Zeitung and Nordkurier report unanimously. The country spent 440,000 euros on the app license. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Interior told the Nordkurier whether there will be another digital solution for contact tracing afterwards.
Police accessed data
It was already announced on Wednesday that Schleswig-Holstein is letting the license expire, according to the district council, because the Corona state ordinance no longer includes an obligation to collect contact details. In the other federal states with a Luca contract, the future of the contracts that expire between March and April is still open. Several countries announced a decision by the end of February. Three federal states do not have a contract: North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Thuringia, but individual health authorities also use the app there.
The app recently caused discussions because the police in Mainz used data from the app via the health department when investigating a fatal fall in a restaurant – without an adequate legal basis. After that, individual politicians demanded that federal states not extend expiring contracts for the app. The police action in Mainz was also sharply criticized by the makers of the Luca app.
Patrick Hennig, Managing Director of the Luca operator neXenio, appealed to the countries to use all established technical means at the peak of the incidences to get the pandemic under control. “The Luca app and the Corona warning app complement each other perfectly.” Information on the individual risk is particularly important when the incidences are very high and CWA warnings appear very frequently.
(axk)