Ireland to launch phone tracking app to tackle spread of COVID-19

The new phone app alerts users if a close contact tests positive. /Paul Faith/AFP

Ireland is set to launch a voluntary phone-tracking app that will alert users if anyone they have been in contact with develops COVID-19, its health service has said.

The tracing of people with coronavirus is playing a big part in limiting the spread of the pandemic and Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) said it was hoping to have the app up and running within 10 days.

It is two weeks before the pandemic is expected to peak in Ireland and the app will keep track of people the user has come into close physical contact with, and alert them if they later test positive.

"This is a cross-government effort in relation to a very important piece of technology in fighting COVID-19," said HSE head of communications Paul Connors, adding that the app will also allow users to share health data with the authorities.

The voluntary app is expected to be ready within 10 days. /Indranil Mukherjee/AFP

While a number of countries are developing mobile-phone based technologies to help track the virus, there has been criticism from data privacy activists. The HSE said it was working with the Irish data protection agency to approve the app.

The Irish government has said it plans to make widespread testing and the tracing of recent interpersonal contacts of those tested positive the two central pillars of its efforts to combat COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

It has trained 1,400 people for manual contact tracing, which involves interviewing patients, and plans to increase that to 4,000, the HSE said. It is currently processing around 5,000 tests per day and plans to scale that up to 15,000 per day in the coming weeks.

Ireland has so far has a total of 2,415 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 36 deaths and last Friday prime minister Leo Varadkar ordered citizens to stay home until 12 April.

The health executive, which on Sunday unveiled plans to turn a 750-room hotel into an isolation facility, said it was planning on the assumption that COVID-19's impact on Ireland will peak between 10 and 14 April.

It has ordered tens of millions of face masks and eye protection equipment to be delivered between now and the end of May.

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