European plans to use apps in virus tracking face setbacks

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Doubts are growing over whether ambitious plans by European governments to use contact-tracing apps to fight the spread of coronavirus will be able to be implemented with any real effectiveness soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In contrast&comma; there appears to be some movement forward in the sprint to find a vaccine against Covid-19&comma; bolstered by a one billion dollar investment from the US vaccine agency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads1--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged on Wednesday to have a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;test&comma; track and trace” programme for Covid-19 in place in Britain by June 1 as part of a strategy to persuade the country that it is safe to move on to the next stage of easing the lockdown and restarting the economy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the Government also appeared to backtrack on an earlier pledge to make a smartphone app a pillar of that programme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Security minister James Brokenshire told the BBC on Thursday that he remains &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>confident<&sol;i>” the tracing system will be in place by June 1&comma; but acknowledged that an app intended to help track the virus was not ready&period; He suggested &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>technical issues<&sol;i>” were the reason for its failure to be introduced as planned by mid-May&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Experts say that being able to quickly identify people exposed to the virus can help stop the spread of the contagious respiratory illness&comma; but efforts to put apps in place have come up across technical problems and fears of privacy intrusions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The French government has also been forced to delay deployment of its planned contact-tracing app&period; Initially expected last week as the country started lifting confinement measures&comma; it will not be ready before next month due to technical issues and concerns over privacy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Italian premier Giuseppe Conte said that the country’s contact-tracing app would begin tests &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;in the coming days”&period; But he made no mention of whether Italy had hired teams of contact-tracers to actually conduct interviews and get in touch with people who had been in contact with Covid-19 patients&comma; as other European countries have done&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads2--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Spain’s economy minister&comma; Nadia Calvino&comma; said on Wednesday in parliament that Spain is making preparations to test a European Bluetooth-based app at the end of June in the Canary Islands&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the adoption of the app has taken a back seat to the hiring of old-school human tracers in Spain&period; The government has said that the technology will be adopted only if it adds value to the tracing efforts that are being deployed by the country’s 17 regional administrations&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;05&sol;9B2F189E-2593-4510-BFEC-0425C1FCA376&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"Coronavirus graph deaths and cases" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"538" class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-155772" &sol;><br &sol;>&NewLine;Meanwhile&comma; drug maker AstraZeneca said it has secured the first agreements for 400 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine that is now being tested at the University of Oxford&comma; one of the most advanced projects in the search for a vaccine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Anglo-Swedish company reported it had received more than one billion dollars from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for the development&comma; production and delivery of the vaccine&comma; starting this autumn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said the company &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>will do everything in our power to make this vaccine quickly and widely available<&sol;i>”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Around the world&comma; the effort to get back to business is raising worries over risks of new infections&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads3--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Italy&comma; one of Europe’s worst-hit countries&comma; authorities warned that people are violating social distancing guidelines after a strict lockdown was lifted&comma; threatening the country’s recovery&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the adoption of the app has taken a back seat to the hiring of old-school human tracers in Spain&period; The government has said that the technology will be adopted only if it adds value to the tracing efforts that are being deployed by the country’s 17 regional administrations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; drug maker AstraZeneca said it has secured the first agreements for 400 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine that is now being tested at the University of Oxford&comma; one of the most advanced projects in the search for a vaccine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Anglo-Swedish company reported it had received more than one billion dollars from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for the development&comma; production and delivery of the vaccine&comma; starting this autumn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said the company &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>will do everything in our power to make this vaccine quickly and widely available<&sol;i>”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Around the world&comma; the effort to get back to business is raising worries over risks of new infections&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Italy&comma; one of Europe’s worst-hit countries&comma; authorities warned that people are violating social distancing guidelines after a strict lockdown was lifted&comma; threatening the country’s recovery&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>Now is not the time for parties&comma; nightlife and getting together in crowds&comma;<&sol;i>” Mr Conte warned in parliament&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<i>Be careful&period; Because exposing yourselves to contagion means exposing your loved ones to contagion&period;”<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala said he was asking local police to increase patrols of night spots&comma; be more severe in handing out fines and close any bars or restaurants in flagrant violation of the rules&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Cases in Milan&comma; the seat of the hard-hit region of Lombardy&comma; are rising as Italy continues to relax its long lockdown&period; Since Sunday&comma; there have been 137 new cases in the city of 1&period;4 million residents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From meatpacking plants in Colorado to garment factories in Bangladesh&comma; workers are concerned over risks they face as they return to work after shutdowns&period; The safety questions apply even at the highest levels of the political spectrum&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads4--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In China&comma; the country’s communist leadership was taking extensive precautions to prevent any infections as it opened its National People’s Congress and a parallel meeting of advisers&period; The meetings in Beijing were delayed for nearly two months due to the pandemic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>An outbreak at the congress would be a potential public relations nightmare as President Xi Jinping showcases Beijing’s apparent success in curbing coronavirus&comma; which emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>About five million people worldwide have been confirmed infected&comma; and more than 328&comma;000 deaths have been recorded&period; That includes more than 93&comma;000 in the U&period;S&period; and around 165&comma;000 in Europe&comma; according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University&comma; based on government data&period; Experts believe the true toll is significantly higher&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e2e234573be">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;divId&colon; 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e2e234573be'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;format&colon; 'belowpost'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; document&period;readyState &equals;&equals;&equals; 'loading' &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;document&period;addEventListener&lpar; 'DOMContentLoaded'&comma; window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; else &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback&lpar;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;script>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>


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