Swiss Army uses smartphones to fight Covid-19

In the fight against coronobius, Swiss soldiers are using smartphones to test a new contact tracking application, which can avoid infection while protecting user privacy.

Switzerland hopes to launch the app on May 11th, based on a standard developed by researchers in Lausanne and Zurich. Application uses the Bluetooth link between two devices to access the risk of infection to Covid-19.

Hundreds of soldiers from Chamblon military base near Lausanne volunteered to download the app and then continue their routine for the next 24 hours.

If they were to spend 15 minutes at two meters apart, the information was recorded on their equipment and they should exchange a card given by researchers to verify the data.

The applications do this by code, and the records stand on the phone, said Marcel Salathe, director of the digital epidemiology lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

If a person is tested positively, they can upload their ID to the system, and then all other apps can check if they were close to that person, and then health authorities interfere with that, Salathe said.

Speed is vital. David-19 can be spread by humans without symptoms, making it important to respond quickly when tested people are positive, and to warn those who have contacted.