Three months after its publication, Immuni has been downloaded 5,570,799 times on smartphones, according to data provided by the Ministry of Health at the Post. The downloads of the contact tracing application – made available by the government to counter the spread of the coronavirus – after an initial phase of greater interest have started to slow down, and for this reason in recent weeks campaigns to invite the population to use it.
Immuni allows you to receive notifications if you have come into contact with people who have then discovered that they are positive for the coronavirus: both must of course have the app installed on their smartphone. The application works on iOS (from version 13.5) and on Android (from version 6) via Bluetooth, and has several tricks to reduce battery consumption and protect users' privacy without the need to register their geographical location (we explained more largely Immune here).
When a person who has Immuni on their phone discovers they are coronavirus positive – via a swab – they have the option to report their condition to the app with the help of a healthcare provider (to avoid false reports). The report is made by sending a unique and anonymous code (key), which is then used to inform other Immuni users that they had come into contact with the person who discovered they were positive.
From June 1 to the end of August, 155 users reported being positive on Immuni: 21 in June, 38 in July, and 96 in August. The application then sent 1,878 notifications to as many devices, which had been detected near the smartphones of those who had later discovered to be positive for the coronavirus. The data on notifications refers to a shorter period: from 13 July to the end of August.
The Digital Transformation Department explained that seven positive cases had already received a notification from Immuni, because they had come into contact with other positive people. Thanks to the application it was therefore possible to avoid some chains of contagion, which could have led to new outbreaks.
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After initial skepticism on the part of some observers, applications like Immuni for contact tracing are proving useful, albeit in a still limited way and dependent on the amount of downloads. According to the calculations of the University of Pavia, Immuni was downloaded on about 14.5 per cent of mobile phones estimated to be active in Italy.
The Ministry of Health has also released a map to show the percentage of users in each Italian region, in relation to the estimated smartphone users. Immune appears to be much more widespread in the North and Center, while it is less used in the South.
The reasons for these differences and more generally for the still low percentages of users in the regions derive from numerous factors. Only in recent weeks has the government stepped up communication activities to encourage the use of Immuni, which should help reduce mistrust and skepticism about its usefulness and privacy. For technical reasons, the application cannot be installed on older smartphones, with the result that some will never be able to use it, unless they decide to change phones or try to update it.
The World Health Organization and several other health institutions also recommend using applications such as Immuni to improve contact tracking, thereby reducing the spread of the pandemic. Immuni is free and can be downloaded on iPhone and Android smartphone respectively through the App Store and Google Play.
