Cases on COVID-19 are slowly resurfacing across countries that have successfully flattened the curve over the months. Countries like China and South Korea have reported new cases in the past couple of weeks ever since they reopened their economy. With similar concerns across Germany, the country’s Health Minister Jens Spahn has recently revealed the launch of a smartphone app for tracing COVID-19 infections.

After encountering numerous delays and challenges, mainly with the Bluetooth technology to work at correct distances, the German government has revealed that it will launch the app this week as it would act as a vital tool to help avoid a potential second wave of COVID-19 infections.

The concept of contact tracing basically involves interviewing people infected with COVID-19 so as to identify the locations they have recently visited and people they have met, mainly to slow down the spread of the virus.

According to credible reports, the new COVID-19 tracing app utilizes Bluetooth short-range radio to identify and contact people that are at risk of a coronavirus infection. The app would certainly be of paramount importance as Germany plans to ease travel restrictions for the UK and European Union countries.

Spahn claims that the country will provide travel advice to foreign visitors from individual countries and regions. He said that the country witnessed the outbreak ever since various mass gatherings and church services were held over the months. These series of events led to a rapid surge in the spread of the virus.

However, with large-scale testing, stern lockdown measures introduced in mid-March and an advanced health system, Germany has managed to lower the number of COVID-19 related deaths compared to other countries, despite having significantly larger number of cases. For the record, Germany has had over 186,000 coronavirus cases and a reported 8,787 deaths up till now.

Source Credit: https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-germany-app/germany-says-coronavirus-tracing-app-ready-to-go-idINKBN23M05Q