Manual tracing has its limits. If an individual is stuck in a line in a store and is in contact for several minutes with a stranger who later tests positive at Covid, no tracing center will ever be able to trace him or her to alert him or her. It is in particular to cover this type of situation that Belgium will soon launch a mobile tracing application.

How does it work ?

Each phone equipped with the application emits permanently - via the Bluetooth signal - a unique identifier which changes every hour. When two phones cross each other for a sufficiently long time - 15 minutes - and in a sufficiently close manner - less than 1.5m -, these identifiers are exchanged. The trace of this contact remains stored in the phone for 14 days and is then erased. When someone is declared positive following a test, the application allows him/her to alert all saved contacts while preserving his/her anonymity.

Given the resurgence of positive cases, this mobile application seems to be an effective solution for screening and tracking potential patients.

Source : Lesoir