Contact-tracing app to debut today
THE HSE’s long-awaited Covid-19 contact-tracing app is finally set to be launched today after it received final approval from the Government.
Speaking yesterday, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that it ‘hopefully will be a really powerful part of the toolkit in fighting this disease’.
The app cost €850,000 to develop and test, a process which the HSE said was ‘on budget for this stage of the project’.
‘These costs compare very favourably to expenditure on national contact-tracing apps in other jurisdictions,’ said the HSE.
Figures released to the Irish Daily Mail show that the HSE has budgeted €343,980 a year on running costs for the app.
Mr Donnelly said: ‘It will allow us to get on with contact tracing in a matter of hours. It will allow people who have the app to completely control their own data; there will be no centralisation of data.
‘The people themselves can choose if they want to anonymously share with close contacts that they have tested positive.’
The HSE’s new app will be an opt-in system and will use Bluetooth technology on a person’s phone.
A phone can generate an anonymised list of all phones it was in close contact with for a certain period of time to make it easier to trace those who may be affected.
All of the data collected will be stored on the phone and not in a centralised public health database.
The HSE has said that the app will help speed up the contact-tracing efforts. It said that using the app will mean close contacts can be notified within three hours.
However, during the course of the app’s development, a number of people have raised some concerns. Dr Stephen Farrell, of Trinity College Dublin’s School of Computer Science and Statistics, said recently that there was ‘no clear evidence’ that the app accurately detects close contacts.
The app will be live for six months before any review will be conducted into its effectiveness, and if an assessment finds that it is not effective, it will be wound down within 90 days. The app can also be wound down on the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team or when the Government declares the crisis over.
It will be available on App and Play Stores in both Ireland and the UK.
According to the HSE, this is being done because there is significant travel between England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic.
It said: ‘While the volumes are currently low due to travel restrictions, they will increase over time and there are no travel restrictions between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Department of Health and the HSE are in regular contact with counterparts in Northern Ireland and England and have provided them with full access to developments in the Irish app.’
Travel volumes ‘will increase over time’