Covid-19 warning app to be called CoronaMelder

The Dutch government's coronavirus notification app will be called CoronaMelder, Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health confirmed on Wednesday. The goal of the app is to warn users if they had contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

The app is currently being tested by a few hundred residents in the Twente region of the country. The test is meant to show whether the app is easy to use and understand. Researchers are also looking at how people respond to warnings from the app that they had contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

The app uses Bluetooth technology to exchange unique and non-traceable numbers between phones that are in the vicinity of each other. If a person tests positive for Covid-19 and reports it on the app, the app notifies all the phones who had been near the person in question. This only works if both parties have the app on their phone.