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France's ‘StopCOVID’ contact tracing app for coronavirus expected to enter testing in week of May 11

  • Countries are rushing to develop apps to assess the risk of one person infecting another, helping to isolate those who could spread the disease
  • The ‘StopCOVID’ app is a key element of France’s strategy to stave off the coronavirus, Minister for Digital Affairs Cedric O says

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A woman walks past a closed bar on which reads ''take care, see you soon", during the lockdown imposed to slow down the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Cambrai, France, May 3, 2020. Photo: Reuters
Reuters

France’s state-supported “StopCOVID” contact-tracing app should enter its testing phase in the week of May 11 when the country starts to unwind its lockdown, a government minister said on Sunday.

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Minister for Digital Affairs Cedric O, a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s inner circle, presented the app as a key element of France’s strategy to stave off the coronavirus as authorities grapple with the prospect of mass testing.

“There’s nothing magical about this app, but it’s not technological coquetry either,” O wrote on online publishing platform Medium. “It’s only useful if it’s integrated into a global health system.”

Countries are rushing to develop apps to assess the risk of one person infecting another, helping to isolate those who could spread the disease.

Like others in Europe, France has chosen the short-range Bluetooth “handshakes” between devices as the best approach, dismissing the alternative of using location data pursued by some countries in Asia as intrusive.

But debate has raged about whether to log such contacts on individual devices or on a central server – which would be more directly useful to existing contact tracing teams that work phones and knock on doors to warn those who may be at risk.
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