French minister confident in virus tracing app

PARIS

(AP) — As France is easing most virusrelated restrictions next week, the French government is confident its contact-tracing app will be effective in the process to contain the spread of the pandemic, despite skepticism and worries about pr i vacy.

The man at the forefront of the French app, junior minister for digital economy Cedric O told The Associated Press on Friday, “it is not a miracle solution, but it is useful and necessary.”

The StopCovid app is set to be available to the public on June 2, when the country starts reopening its restaurants and cafes together with monuments and museums, theaters, gyms and public swimming pools. It will make France the first major world democracy to roll out such a tracing app.

Holding his phone with the app opened, O said: “Imagine we’re sitting next to each other or face to face - we don’t know each other. Or we pass each other in the metro. Both our phones will keep a trace of that contact.”

People tested positive to the virus will be able to send a quick notification in the app to warn people they were in close contact with, allowing them to call a doctor and get a test. ---AP