The fate of business travel could hang on Covid-19 tracing apps

A man uses a Swedish version of the Covid Symptom Tracker app on his smartphone in Stockholm, Sweden. Officials, airlines and experts say they’re worried that some countries – such as the UK and France – are working on systems that are fundamentally incompatible with others – such as Germany and Austria. — AFP

Mobile phone applications that trace the new coronavirus could help decide whether business travelers and vacation-goers get to meet clients or visit their favourite beaches this summer. But politics and disagreement over what system to use threatens to thwart that solution.

Governments in Europe and elsewhere are turning to voluntary mobile apps to help trace possible infections of the coronavirus, a tool that will help track and contain what they expect to be resurgent outbreaks of the virus once lockdown measures lift and people start to fly internationally.