France, Britain to trial COVID-19 tracing apps next week
Paris/Xinhua/UNI: France will test its "StopCOVID" contact tracing app in the week of May 11 when the country starts to ease lockdown measures, Minister for Digital Affairs Cedric O said on Sunday.
According to a Reuters report, the minister presented the state-supported app as a key element of France's strategy to stave off the coronavirus, as authorities grapple with the prospect of mass testing.
"There's nothing magical about this app, but it's not technological coquetry either," he wrote on online publishing platform Medium. "It's only useful if it's integrated into a global health system."
Meanwhile, Britain will trial its own coronavirus contact tracing app next week on the Isle of Wight, according to Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove.
"This week we will be piloting new test, track and trace procedures on the Isle of Wight, with a view to having that in place more widely later this month," Gove told a news conference Sunday.
Global confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 3.5 million on Sunday, reaching 3,502,126 as of 7 p.m. (2300 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
A total of 247,107 people worldwide have died of the disease, according to the CSSE.
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