StayAway cost “close to 400,000 euros”. App aims to trace 6.5 million Portuguese
In an interview with ECO, INESC TEC board member Rui Oliveira talks about the challenge of launching the StayAway Covid app in Portugal and about how to measure success in digital Covid tracing.
About three weeks after its launch, the Portuguese tracing app StayAway Covid has already passed one million downloads. That is almost 10% of Portugal’s population, but more than 15% of the 6.5 million Portuguese who, by INESC TEC’s estimate, have a phone capable of running the app.
Rui Oliveira, a board member of the institute, was involved in the whole process of developing the app, which uses phones’ Bluetooth to detect risky contacts with people diagnosed with Covid-19. The app is endorsed by the Portuguese Government and the Directorate-General of Health.
AI translation from the Portuguese. First published in ECO on 21 September 2020.