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Berlin (dpa) - The official corona warning app of the federal government is being expanded with a new function for combating pandemics.

The latest version 2.0 of the smartphone app, which should be available for download no later than Wednesday, will be expanded to include a check-in function.

This is primarily intended to better record high-risk encounters between people indoors.

In future versions, it should also be possible to display a digital vaccination certificate before the start of the summer holidays.

This would enable users to prove that they have been fully vaccinated.

In addition, the results of rapid tests should be able to be displayed in the app.

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With the new check-in function in version 2.0, the app creators are reacting to new findings: So far, the app has only registered people who have been at a distance of two meters or less for a long time as risk contacts.

However, studies had shown that this was not enough.

In closed rooms such as shops, restaurants or places of worship, the aerosols spread over great distances.

In addition, air particles exhaled by infected people will still be present in dangerous concentrations for a while after the person has already left the room.

These findings are now taken into account in the new app version.

To identify “clusters” in rooms, users can check in by scanning a QR code, similar to the private Luca app.

You can also create and print out the block graphics in the app if you want to organize an event yourself.

The location of the event, the duration and the type of event are recorded, but not the names and telephone numbers of the visitors.

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In contrast to the Luca app or comparable check-in applications from private providers, the contacts are only registered anonymously.

Google and Apple had prescribed this procedure if you wanted to use their Bluetooth interfaces for contact discovery.

With the federal app, possible warnings about dangerous encounters are not issued by the health authorities, but directly as a red or green warning via the system of the Corona warning app itself.

Apps such as Luca, kannichrein.de, Recover or eGuest are primarily intended to digitally implement the registration of people in restaurants, shops or events as required by the federal states.

The visitors have to give their complete contact details.

As long as the infection protection regulations of the federal states require the collection of personal data, the federal corona warning app cannot take on this task.

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Although the German Corona warning app is the most successful application for digital contact tracking in Europe with 27 million downloads, the effectiveness of the app is repeatedly called into question. For example, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) declared the application to be practically ineffective last October: "Unfortunately, the app has so far been a toothless tiger," Söder said in an interview at the time. "It hardly has a warning effect."

However, this impression is refuted by current figures from the Federal Government.

In the past four weeks alone, 79,000 users have warned their contacts about a positive test result.

A positive message triggers warnings to six other people on average.

Four out of five people who receive a red warning message in the app then take a test.

A corona infection is positively detected in seven percent.

If these figures are taken into account, the app probably warned a total of around 2.5 million people about risky encounters with others and ultimately 140,000 Covid-19 infections were detected.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210420-99-274331 / 3

Corona warning app in the Apple App Store

Corona warning app in the Google Play Store