DECRYPTION
First (very) disappointing assessment for StopCovid. The mobile app, which tracks contacts with people with coronavirus, has been downloaded 1.9 million times since its launch on June 2, according to figures released by Bercy on Tuesday. It has also been activated, that is to say, started by the user, only 1.8 million times. "Very low" figures, recognized Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O (in Germany, the local application is 10 million downloads). StopCovid is therefore flopping but the government intends to keep the tool in place in the event of a second wave in the coming months.
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Disappointing first results
Betting on the future is a bit the only option to justify the interest of StopCovid. Because as it stands, the application, which is part of the global plan to fight the pandemic of Covid-19, has not shown its effectiveness. In three weeks, only 68 people identified themselves as sick thanks to their mobile. This resulted in the detection of 205 contact cases and, at the end of the chain, only 14 notifications sent to users to warn them of their proximity to an infected person. This very low figure "surprises a little" Cédric O, who attributes it to the low number of tests carried out at the moment, "around thirty people a day in Paris".
Another telling figure, and perhaps even more worrying: of the 1.9 million people who installed StopCovid, 460,000 have uninstalled it since then, which in reality leaves between 1.4 and 1.5 million users. . And, according to Cédric O, although 190,000 people still registered on the application in the last week, "the number of uninstallations has increased significantly in recent days, to the tens of thousands per day". A trend he explains by "a drop in the concern of our fellow citizens vis-à-vis the epidemic".
A technological step forward
Despite everything, Cédric O tries to be positive and prefers to retain the capacity of France to release in two months a "functional" application. "It may seem anecdotal. But, in normal times, such a project would have required one to two years of development," he said. Applauding the work of organizations (Inria, Inserm, ANSSI, etc.) and companies (Lunabee Studio, Orange, Capgemini, etc.) that helped bring StopCovid into existence within this very short period, the Secretary of State considered that "this 'France team' has made it possible to develop a sovereign solution ".
Certain technological elements are therefore destined to continue beyond StopCovid. "The application works very satisfactorily. We did not have any problems with privacy and confidentiality," added Cédric O. "We French people like to scourge us. But, at the time of domination GAFA, it is not anecdotal that our 'French team' developed its application before those of other European countries ( which all opted for the solution developed by Apple and Google, only France has chosen to 'a tool of its own, editor's note ). "
Problem, still according to the figures presented by Cédric O, hosting and maintenance of StopCovid currently costs between 100,000 and 200,000 euros per month to the State. A sum certainly much less than the millions spent by other countries on similar applications, but which nevertheless questions in light of its first results.
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A tool for a possible second wave
The government therefore intends to continue to promote StopCovid among the population. But, no longer a question of sweeping wide, it is now "surgical strikes on the orange, red zones and clusters", in the words of Cédric O. Experiments are already underway in Guyana, always a focus alive from the coronavirus epidemic, in particular another reporting method in the application which goes through the attending physician. But the priority is now to improve StopCovid for a second wave.
"The epidemic is not over. We are looking for and discovering new grouped cases every day," warned Maurice-Pierre Planel, deputy director general of health, during the progress report. "There is the prospect of a second wave in the fall, we are preparing for it and improving the application for this purpose," he added. According to him, it is no longer possible to do without technological solutions such as StopCovid: "it is not just an application to fight against the epidemic but also a window on a new model of health prevention".