Doubts grow over viability of coronavirus contact-tracing apps scheme
DOUBTS are growing over whether ambitious plans by European governments to use contact-tracing apps to fight the spread of coronavirus will be able to be implemented with any real effectiveness soon.
In contrast, there appears to be some movement forward in the sprint to find a vaccine against Covid-19, bolstered by a one-billiondollar investment from the US vaccine agency.
Experts say that being able to quickly identify people exposed to the virus can help stop the spread of the contagious respiratory illness, but efforts to put apps in place have come up across technical problems and fears of privacy intrusions.
The French government has been forced to delay deployment of its planned contact-tracing app. Initially expected last week as the country started lifting confinement measures, it will not be ready before next month due to technical issues and concerns over privacy.
Italian premier Giuseppe Conte said that the country’s contact-tracing app would begin tests “in the coming days”. But he made no mention of whether Italy had hired teams of contact-tracers to actually conduct interviews and get in touch with people who had been in contact with Covid-19 patients, as other European
countries have done.
Spain’s economy minister, Nadia Calvino, said on Wednesday in parliament Spain is making preparations to test a European Bluetoothbased app at the end of June in the Canary Islands.
But the adoption of the app has taken a back seat to the hiring of oldschool human tracers in Spain. The government has said that the technology will be adopted only if it adds value to the tracing efforts that are being deployed by the country’s 17 regional administrations.
Meanwhile, drug-maker AstraZeneca said it has secured the first agreements for 400 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine that is now being tested at the University of Oxford, one of the most advanced projects in the search for a vaccine.
The Anglo-Swedish company reported it had received more than one billion dollars from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for the development, production and delivery of the vaccine, starting this autumn.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said the company “will do everything in our power to make this vaccine quickly and widely available”.
Around the world, the effort to get back to business is raising worries over risks of new infections.
In Italy, one of Europe’s worst-hit countries, authorities warned that people are violating social distancing guidelines after a strict lockdown was lifted, threatening the country’s recovery.
“Now is not the time for parties, nightlife and getting together in crowds,” Mr Conte warned in parliament. “Be careful. Because exposing yourselves to contagion means exposing your loved ones to contagion.”
Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala said he was asking local police to increase patrols of nightspots, to be more severe in handing out fines and to close any bars or restaurants in flagrant violation of the rules.
Cases in Milan, the seat of the hard-hit region of Lombardy, are rising as Italy continues to relax its long lockdown. Since Sunday, there have been 137 new cases in the city of 1.4 million residents.
From meat-packing plants in Colorado to garment factories in Bangladesh, workers are concerned over risks they face as they return to work after shutdowns.
The safety questions apply even at the highest levels of the political spectrum.
In China, the country’s communist leadership was taking extensive precautions to prevent any infections as it opened its National People’s Congress and a parallel meeting of advisers. The meetings in Beijing were delayed for nearly two months due to the pandemic.
An outbreak at the congress would