The widespread use of various smartphone apps launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably contact-tracing applications, can be seen as a positive development.However, more research must be done to determine how these technologies can be refined for future use cases.
This was the key conclusion of a review paper published in Nature Biotechnology, whose authors said that, despite patient...
With cruise ships back on the high seas, Royal Caribbean is looking to boost contact-tracing efforts with a new wearable device, called the Tracelet. The effort is born out of a partnership between the cruise line and tech company TraceSafe. While none of the announcements say the tracing will be specifically for COVID-19, it’s a safe bet to assume that exposure to the virus will be one of the...
Android users in Massachusetts may automatically see a new state COVID-19 exposure notification app installed on their phone, according to a number of reports surfacing.
Google told 9to5Google that it has been working with the state's public health department and that it is "automatically distributed by the Google Play Store." However, Google said that even if the app is installed, it must be...
A service allowing national apps to talk to each other has been set up by the European Commission, allowing users to receive a warning if they were in contact with someone who has indicated that they have tested positive for COVID-19.
Adopted by the majority of the Member States, the service works according to a “decentralised” system where the calculations happen in the user’s app. In...
LATVIA'S COVID-19 APP CONNECTS TO EU'S INTEROPERABILITY SYSTEM
Latvia's contact tracing app, Apturi Covid (Stop Covid) has connected to the interoperability system for other contact tracing apps in the European Commission.
This will allow the Apturi Covid app to warn and notify a user if they have come into contact with an COVID-19 infected person when in Germany, Italy, Ireland and Spain.
The...
People in England and Wales being told to self-isolate by the NHS contact tracing app have not been able to claim a £500 grant from the government.
A flaw in the process for claiming the financial support means they can only claim the support if they are given a code via the manual contact tracing process.
The app's privacy-protecting design means that anyone who is told to isolate by the app,...
A new proof-of-concept machine learning system outlined in npj digital medicine could provide Bluetooth-based contact tracing tools with the means to quantify the risk of coronavirus transmission when device owners are in close proximity.
The approach, researchers from the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin write, measures whether the received signal strength of a second party's...
COVID-19 may not be the first pandemic the world has faced, but the virus' challenge comes amidst widespread skepticism of longstanding public health institutions. Government-led responses to outbreaks have varied from country to country, and incongruent messaging between political leaders, health agencies and other sources of information have fueled varying levels of concern and distrust among...
A new survey conducted among consumers and IT professionals by data security company SecureAge Technology suggests that the clear majority of these groups believe COVID-19 contact-tracing technologies put individuals' personally identifiable information at risk. Despite this, both groups generally believed that these types of tools could help cut down the impact of the disease, and would support...
The Smart Nation and Digital Government Office under the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore announced that the Singapore Government will begin nation-wide distribution of TraceTogether (TT) Tokens to the general public at community sites from 14 September 2020 onwards, with the aim to complete the distribution by November.
Distribution of the Tokens will begin at communities with higher...
