⁍ France’s new COVID-19 contact-tracing app needs to be downloaded by at least 20% of the population to be effective.

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⁍ Many in France have been reluctant to download the app over privacy concerns.

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⁍ On Saturday, France registered a new record of more than 45,000 coronavirus infections over a 24-hour period.

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– A new app designed to help health officials trace the contacts of people infected with a deadly virus has been released in France, but officials say it needs to be downloaded by at least 20% of the country’s population to be effective. “For the application to be efficient, about 20% of the population, or 15 to 20 million people, need to download it,” said Digital Affairs Minister Cedrid O on Sunday, per Reuters. He said similar apps are working well in Britain, Germany, and Canada but gave no examples of successful contact tracing in France with the app. Many in France have been reluctant to download the app over privacy concerns, despite the government’s reassurances that the data will not be used for any other purpose than stopping the pandemic. O said the app would be a crucial tool in preventing the spread of infection once France ends a curfew imposed on two-thirds of the population in an effort to rein in contagion. The app works with bluetooth and warns users if they have been within 3.3 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. “It does mean that you need to have your bluetooth on and that the other person is also using the app,” O said. President Emmanuel Macron said in mid-October that the previously used app had not worked well and that users of the new one would be instructed to switch it on only when they are in close proximity with other people, like on the subway or at parties. Prime Minister Jean Castex said last month he had not downloaded the app because he does not take the metro.