Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
The Dutch coronavirus tracking app Coronamelder is tested on a smartphone. 7 July 2020
The Dutch coronavirus tracking app Coronamelder is tested on a smartphone. 7 July 2020 - Credit: erikkoole.gmail.com / DepositPhotos - License: DepositPhotos
Health
Tech
Erasmus University
CoronaMelder
Coronavirus
app
GGD
source and contact tracing
Wolfgang Ebbers
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 - 12:30
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Less than half of Covid-app notifications came up in source and contact tracing

The CoronaMelder app is a success in that it reaches a wider proportion of the population than health service GGD's source and contact tracing, according to researchers at Erasmus University. About 58 percent of people who got an app notification that they were in close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 were never contacted by the GGD in source and contact tracing, the researchers found, RTL Nieuws reports.

"Our research shows that 58 percent only received a message via the app. Without CoronaMelder, this group would not have come into the picture, or not on time," professor Wolfgang Ebbers said. 

The CoronaMelder app has been downloaded by nearly 4.7 million people in the Netherlands. The app uses Bluetooth to keep track of who you get close to and for how long, using anonymous codes. If someone tests positive for Covid-19 and reports it on the app, the app will notify all other app users who spent 15 minutes or more in their vicinity at a distance closer than 1.5 meters. 

The researchers found that a significant number of people do not adhere to the advice provided by the app after Covid-19 exposure. Less than half of people who received a notification that they were exposed actually quarantine at home. And only half make a test appointment on the same day that they received the notification.

The government needs to communicate more about the app in order to make sure that more people adhere to the advice to stay home and get tested, the researchers said.

According to the researchers, young people more often received Covid-19 warnings through the app than older people. "A possible explanation for this is that young people are more socially mobile than older people," the researchers said. 

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Amsterdam lecturers' refusal to mark tests could significantly delay students' studies
  • Storm warning intensified: Code orange alert issued for three Dutch provinces
  • Eindhoven terrorism suspects can be released from custody: Prosecutor
  • Replacement Theory report on public broadcaster shocks Dutch MP’s
  • Young people often kept unnecessarily in closed care institutions
  • Cabinet intervening in free market to keep rents affordable for middle class

Top stories

  • Storm warning intensified: Code orange alert issued for three Dutch provinces
  • Cabinet cutting €2.2 billion from climate, development funds to push into Defense: report
  • PM Rutte's deleted texts can't be recovered; Parliamentary debate today
  • Thunderstorms in Netherlands on Thursday: Code Yellow
  • More substantial minimum wage increase set for next year: Report
  • Labor strike to shut The Hague public transportation on June 2

© 2012-2022, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content