25.6.2020 press release: SwissCovid app available from 25 June 2020
The Federal Council approved the Ordinance on the Proximity Tracing System on 24 June 2020. The SwissCovid app can now be used throughout Switzerland. It is available in the Apple and Google Play stores.
The number of new infections with the coronavirus has remained consistently low and should not be allowed to rise again if at all possible. If it does, the country must be able to react quickly. This requires closely coordinated monitoring. The most important way of breaking the chain of infection is to have a thorough system of contact tracing. The SwissCovid app will complement this contact tracing and helps to break transmission chains more quickly.
New coronavirus: SwissCovid app and contact tracing
Contact tracing is used to identify people who have been in close contact with persons who have been infected with the coronavirus. The SwissCovid app supports this process: it establishes whether we have been in close physical contact with an infected person. In this way, we can break the chains of transmission.
SwissCovid app helps to break transmission chains more quickly
The SwissCovid app for mobile phones (Android/iPhone) will help to contain the new coronavirus. It complements the conventional contact tracing carried out by the cantons – and thus helps to break the chains of transmission. The SwissCovid app is available in the Apple Store and Google Play Store.
How does the SwissCovid app work?
Install the SwissCovid app on your Apple or Android smartphone. All you then need to do is switch on Bluetooth and carry your phone at all times. The smartphone transmits encrypted IDs, known as checksums, via Bluetooth. These are long random strings of characters. Each checksum is deleted automatically from your phone two weeks after it is generated.
The app anonymously measures how long and how close it is to other smartphones that have the app installed. It records any encounters that it has with other phones (closer than 1.5 meters and for longer than 15 minutes in any one day), as these are the situations in which you are most likely to become infected with the virus.
How notification works
If a SwissCovid app user tests positive for the coronavirus, the cantonal authorities issue them with a code (the Covidcode). The code allows them to activate the notification function in their app. This warns other app users that have had an encounter with the infected person in the period starting two days before that person first experienced symptoms of the disease. When the code is entered, the app notifies these other app users automatically and anonymously.
The people who have been notified can then call the infoline number in the app and find out what to do next. Their privacy is maintained at all times. If a person who has been notified has already developed symptoms of the disease, they should stay at home, avoid contact with other people, and do the coronavirus check or call their doctor.
Contact Tracing: tracing of transmission chains
Identifying persons who have been in contact with someone who has been infected is one of the most effective ways of combating epidemics. This involves tracing and breaking the chain of transmission, by isolating persons who have become ill and placing those who have been in close contact with infected persons in quarantine.
Download the SwissCovid app
Please download and install the SwissCovid app from the normal app stores, even if you have already installed the pilot version as it has been updatedsince. The data will not be deleted.
The SwissCovid app complements conventional contact tracing. It notifies users if they have spent a certain length of time in close proximity to a person infected with the coronavirus. In order for the app to send the notification, the person infected, on testing positive for the virus, is given a ‘covidcode’ by the cantonal medical service to enter into the app. Installing and using the app and entering the code are all voluntary.
SwissCovid app: FAQs, factsheet, report, ordinance, technical information
More information on the SwissCovid app and contact tracing
