COVID Alert Malta App now Interoperable with 16 EU Countries

The COVID Alert Malta app, developed and supported by Seasus, recently joined the EU eHealth Network.

Through this enhancement, the Maltese contact tracing app is now integrated with the single European Federated Gateway Service within which participating national backends across the EU share anonymous data regarding COVID infections.

With the addition of this interoperability functionality, Malta’s contact tracing app will now work abroad as well as locally after an agreement between 16 European Union countries was established. Maltese app users will now also be alerted of possible contact with an infected individual even when abroad within any of the participating countries. In addition, the functionality is also present for tourists visiting Malta.

The countries currently participating in the interoperability system with their contract tracing apps are: Austria, Belgium, Cyrus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Poland, and Spain.

The COVID Alert Malta contact tracing app is a mobile app which uses bluetooth technology in the background of one’s phone.  If a person tests positive for Covid-19, they can submit a code into the app, which will then alert people who had come into contact with them through the same app.

Nearly 100,000 users, equivalent to 20% of the population have downloaded the application in Malta, with 701 people being issued with the contact tracing code. Nearly 3000 users have also contacted the 111 Covid-19 helpline after receiving an alert through the application.

User who already have the application installed will be required to update it to the new version, however if auto-updates are enabled on one's phone, then the update will be downloaded and installed automatically. Otherwise, the update will have to be installed manually via the Google Play Store or the App store.