Corona warning app: Ready before the freedom to travel?
Lisa Weidner studied German and sociology and completed several journalistic internships. She is a volunteer at Hubert Burda Media Verlag and writes for the "Meine Familie und Ich" magazine and on nutrition and health topics.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.
The developers of the eagerly anticipated German corona warning app are apparently on track. If the app appears in mid-June as promised, it will come just in time for the planned freedom of travel.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday in Berlin that the date in mid-June corresponds "roughly to the current plan". At the same time, he made it clear that a quarantine application brought up by Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) was not a sub-function of the warning app. "They are two separate things."
Test phase of the symptom diary started
The Ministry of Health emphasized that the "Symptom Diary" is not an app, but an Internet platform. "This platform helps to relieve those affected and the health authorities when contact persons of infected people are quarantined." In such cases, the health authorities are currently calling up the state of health twice a day."Alternatively, those affected should in future have the opportunity to enter their health status in the symptom diary on the Internet platform."
Use is voluntary. Before the project goes online, it is checked in detail with a view to data protection and data security. An extended test phase for the use of the digital symptom diary for the automated questioning of patients in quarantine has now started.
Data should not be stored centrally
The Corona warning app is intended to send a notification to users if they have been near someone for a long time who has tested positive for the pathogen causing the lung disease Covid-19. The necessary data of the contacts registered via Bluetooth should not be stored centrally, but only with the user himself.
According to government sources, the app developers have received very good feedback from the online community. On Wednesday, a first concept was published on the Github platform - the world's largest platform for developing open source software.
The online community is involved in the app development process
The community should be taken along in the development process. That was emphasized in government circles. The more people are involved and the more participation there is in the development process of the app, the more it helps the technology, the quality and, ultimately, the acceptance by the population and the security of the app. There are currently more than 180 observers and around 50 sub-groups on Github who are concerned with the concept.
During the weekend and on Monday, further development stages are to be made public. First, the technical app architecture is to be made accessible on Github. The first parts of the program code for the server infrastructure are to follow on Monday evening. (lw / dpa)
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