Last updated on March 9, 2021
Will traveling with the Corona warning app soon be safer?
T he Corona warning app has a hard time with the citizens in Germany; it should actually make it easy for them. Only about 20 percent use them. Across Europe it is only 10 percent. Most countries have their own app. Because of the different technology, communication between the apps is difficult or impossible. The EU Commission now wants to change that.
Data exchange between eleven countries
Germany, Italy and Ireland are showing the way: These countries will update their apps from October 17, 2020. Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain will follow from the end of October. Telekom and SAP are responsible for the service that enables data synchronization. The programming code is published on GitHub . The update contains three different modes. The first downloads data from all infected people from Europe. In Germany only this mode is available at the beginning. Another is limited to selected countries. The last one is based on travel behavior. People who do not travel only get the local data and that of travelers.
No exchange possible with four neighboring countries
Six countries do not take part in the data exchange, for example France. The app of this state does not work with the Bluetooth interface from Google and Apple. A data comparison is therefore not possible. However, a solution to this problem is currently being sought. Switzerland is also not included because it lacks a corresponding EU health agreement. Belgium, Lithuania and Cyprus have not yet completed an app. For these countries and for Luxembourg, participation has not yet been decided.
