Starting today, Immuni will detect and report any coronavirus exposures even when in Germany and Ireland. The application has in fact activated the interoperability system envisaged by the European Union to ensure that different applications for contact tracing can communicate with each other.
In this first phase, the initiative concerns Immuni for Italy, Corona-Warn-App for Germany and COVID tracker for Ireland. The three apps collectively have around 30 million users, a number that the governments of the three countries are confident of increasing over the next few weeks. Other European Union countries may be added to make the initiative even more extensive.
Interoperability should make contact tracing more effective, even for individuals who have spent time abroad. Operation remains more or less similar to that developed in recent months.
For example: Mario downloads Immuni in Italy, and Marta does the same with Corona-Warn-App in Germany. Mario makes a trip to Germany and detects a residence time of at least 15 minutes and within three meters of Marta. Mario then returns to Italy and in the meantime Marta feels unwell: she takes a test, discovers that she is positive for the coronavirus and reports it through its application.
In Italy, Mario receives a notification on Immuni that he has been in the vicinity of a person who later tested positive, just as it would have been if the contact had occurred in Italy. At this point Mario can contact the Italian health authorities and receive instructions on how to behave and for how long to remain in isolation.
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Today is an important day in the history of #Immuni; Italy is in fact the first country, together with Germany and Ireland, to activate interoperability. #UnitiSiamoImmuni #UnitedAgainstCoronavirus #StrongerTogether
✅ Download Immuni here ▶ https://t.co/k4vzA5SXUa pic.twitter.com/ZhxXyvFRNr
– Immuni App (@immuni_app) October 19, 2020
The project coordinated by the European Union should make it possible to extend contact tracing via smartphones, although much will depend on the choices of other member states to develop and maintain apps for this purpose. Immuni has recently reached 9 million downloads and the new DPCM requires ASLs to upload user reports, overcoming the difficulties encountered so far in some regions.
