The presentation of the national contact tracking application CovTracer - Exposure Notification (CovTracer - EN) was made today by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, which is expected to be a valuable complementary and supporting tool in the tracking process.
CovTracer-EN operates using the Bluetooth protocol, and records user contacts, according to the definition of "close contact", as defined in the protocol of the Ministry of Health.
His confirmed cases Covid-19, who use the application, have the option to fill in the diagnostic code in the application, which will be provided by the Epidemiological Unit of the Ministry of Health and to inform anonymously their possible contacts, in order to follow the appropriate steps, according to the relevant instructions. Ministry of Health.
It is noted that the application operates purely on a voluntary basis, while it is available in both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
Capable of reducing infections by 15% and deaths by 11%
Speaking at a press conference, the Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Kyriakos Kokkinos, said that this application is part of the State's effort to develop digital and innovative solutions, to address and stop the pandemic, noting that and 15% use by the population is able to reduce infections by 15% and deaths by 11%.
He explained that it has been developed by the Centers of Excellence CYENS (formerly RISE) and Koios, under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the National E-Health Authority.
He called on all citizens to download the application and to actively contribute to the effort being made at national and European level, to reduce the spread of the virus and protect our society.
As mentioned, the development of the CovTracer-EN application is part of a European Initiative, which aims at the development and cross-border functionality of tracking applications, which have been developed nationally in the EU Member States.
To this end, he said, the European Federation Gateway Service has already been developed, through which it is possible to connect national databases and control the virus transmission chain at a pan-European level.
The Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy thanked all those involved for the constructive cooperation and referred to the importance of collectivity and mass adoption of the application, to maximize the benefit that can result from its use.
According to the Minister of Health, Konstantinos Ioannou, "now attempting a gradual restart, the need to continue with the same intensive pace the tracking becomes imperative".
"This implementation", noted the Minister of Health, "comes to be included in the national planning for the fight against the pandemic. The relevant arrangements are already being made for its smooth integration into the wider context of the control of the spread of the virus ".
This project has received funding from the Emergency Support Instrument program of the European Union under the grant agreement no. CYPRUS-LC-01591248.
Citizens can visit the website: www.covtracer.dmrid.gov.cy for more information.