COVID19: Thousands download Cyprus COVTRACER app

Already 3,300 citizens have downloaded the COVTRACER app on their mobile phones, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Kyriacos Kokkinos has told CNA.

This number is expected to spiral within the coming days.

COVTRACER application aims at stopping the COVID-19 pandemic with the fastest possible tracking of Cypriots who have come in contact with others who tested positive during the previous 14 days.

Kokkinos said that the application allows the authorities to see all the places a person who has been infected with COVID-19 visited in the last two weeks.

This allows the authorities to disinfect the locations visited or even evacuate others and also quickly track down the contacts they might have had.

Downloading the application is not compulsory and citizens give personal information only if they wish to do so.

A person who has tested positive can give access to their information, i.e. the places where they went and whom they came into contact with.

Kokkinos said that the effectiveness of this application will be seen in practice.

He explained that if the information is shared then the intervention could be much easier and prompt, thus assisting in reducing the further spread of the disease.

So far, only owners of Android mobiles can download the application but in a few days, it is set to be available on IOS devices as well.