Covid-19: Ireland to roll out voluntary phone tracker app to tackle coronavirus

A man wearing a face mask on St Patrick's Day as public events were cancelled as the number of coronavirus cases grow around the world, in Dublin, Ireland. The Irish government has said it plans to put wide-spread testing and the tracing of recent interpersonal contacts of those tested positive as two central pillars of its efforts to combat Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. — Reuters

DUBLIN: Ireland's government is to roll out a voluntary phone-tracking app to alert users if someone they have been in contact with develops Covid-19, its health service said on March 29, two weeks before the pandemic is expected to peak in the country.

The phone app, which will keep track of people the user has come into close physical contact with and alert them if they subsequently test positive, is expected to be launched within 10 days, Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) said.