Japan launches virus contact app, reopens clubs

Japan has launched a smartphone app that notifies users who have come into close contact with someone infected with the coronavirus. If any of them test positive and disclose their results in the app, other users are notified of an anonymous person's infection. Data will only be recorded and stored in each user's phone, and will be deleted after 14 days.

Japan has launched a smartphone app that notifies users who have come into close contact with someone infected with the coronavirus. The COVID-19 Contact Confirming Application, or COCOA, was created by the Health Ministry using technology developed by Apple and Google.

As Japan resumes social and economic activity, officials say contact tracing, along with aggressive testing, is key to quickly finding and isolating those infected. Less than a month after lifting its pandemic state of emergency, Japan on Friday reopened the remaining businesses that were shut, including nightclubs, though people are still asked to use physical distancing and other precautions. The free app logs users' data via phone Bluetooth when they are within a meter (yard) of each other for 15 minutes or longer. If any of them test positive and disclose their results in the app, other users are notified of an anonymous person's infection.

Data will only be recorded and stored in each user's phone and will be deleted after 14 days. Studies have shown that similar contact tracing apps can be effective when used by about 60% of the population. That means virtually all smartphone users in Japan have to register — an extremely ambitious goal to make it work.

The app is currently on a trial run for one month before a full version is available. Japan has about 17,500 cases and 935 deaths.