SwissCovid app will be available for download this week
Swiss residents are encouraged to participate in Covid-19 contact tracing via mobile phones from June 25.
“Using the SwissCovid app is voluntary and free of charge. The more people who install and use the app, the more effectively it can help us to contain the new coronavirus,” announced the Federal Office of Public Health on its website. There will be Android and iPhone versions ready for download from the Apple Store and Google Play.
The app complements the classic method of contact tracing employed by the cantons. It anonymously measures how long and how close a phone was to others that have the app.
“It records any encounters that it has with other phones (closer than 1.5 metres and for longer than 15 minutes in any one day), as these are the situations in which you are most likely to become infected with the virus,” explains the health office.
Parliament approved the app’s legal basis earlier this month. Developed by the government and the two federal technology institutes, the app has been tested for security loopholes.
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