German coronavirus tracing app fixes glitch

The German government says a new update to the country's coronavirus tracing app has addressed a problem on many smartphones that reportedly resulted in some users receiving infection warnings late or not at all. The Health Ministry said Friday that the latest version of the app allows users to activate the background update function more easily.

The German government says a new update to the country's coronavirus tracing app has addressed a problem on many smartphones that reportedly resulted in some users receiving infection warnings late or not at all. Germany's Corona-Warn-App has been downloaded more than 15.5 million times since its launch last month. If someone using it tests positive for COVID-19, they can inform others who were in close proximity for at least 15 minutes that they, too, might be infected.

On Thursday evening, the Bild newspaper reported that automatic warning notifications didn't work properly on some Android phones in the first five weeks because the app's background update function switched off automatically to save power when the app wasn't open. The Health Ministry said Friday that the latest version of the app allows users to activate the background update function more easily.