The federal corona warning app, which has been used millions of times, is to be put into “sleep mode” at the beginning of June in view of the more relaxed pandemic situation. The Federal Ministry of Health informed the dpa news agency that the warning function could still be used until April 30th after a positive test.
In May, the systems are therefore being prepared to put certain functions into an idle state from June 1st. There are no regular updates to the application. But you can keep the app on your cell phone, for example to continue using the electronic vaccination cards. Should the situation change again, the app can be quickly woken up from sleep mode and adjusted, according to a spokesman.
Some functions will be suspended from June
According to the ministry, since its launch in June 2020, the app has been installed more than 48 million times on devices, and nearly nine million people have shared positive test results to warn other users. The current contracts with the service providers SAP and T-Systems expire on May 31.
The costs for the app rose from the originally assumed 50 million euros to 73 million euros in the past pandemic year 2022. So far, 23 million euros have been earmarked for operation this year alone – initially until the planned expiry of the contracts at the end of May. The total costs incurred for development and operation for the project amount to over 220 million euros.
(tiw)
