Governments in Europe and elsewhere are turning to voluntary mobile apps to help trace possible infections of the coronavirus, a tool that will help track and contain what they expect to be resurgent outbreaks of the virus once lockdown measures lift and people start to fly internationally.
In Europe, where travel has been curbed between the bloc’s 27 nations in recent weeks, officials at least agree that apps are an important way to facilitate the return of free movement. While some countries like Belgium are considering eschewing mobile tracing apps altogether, most other European nations are designing voluntary systems based on Bluetooth technology. Authorities are hoping a majority of the population will download them, allowing them to more easily alert individuals of possible infections.
You’re fundamentally sharing different kinds of data,” said Marcel Salathe, an associate professor at the Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne. Airlines for Europe, an association that represents Air France-KLM, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and EasyJet Plc, said contact-tracing apps could, among other measures, play an important role in reviving operations by potentially preventing travelers from coming into contact with coronavirus carriers on-board a plane and at airports.
"This is a global industry that requires a global approach, avoiding the adoption of local variations where possible,” she said.