Last week, Singapore pulled the plug on its own Bluetooth-based smart phone contact tracing app:
Covid-19 tracking apps were hailed as a way to help countries out of lockdown. Instead many have been delayed, and those that are out are not being downloaded at the rates experts say are needed to have a major effect.
Source: What happened to all the coronavirus tracking apps? – CNN
The apps cannot work unless nearly everyone in the country has a smart phone and installs the app. Furthermore, they are incapable of tracking contacts across time (scenario: sit on bus, cough, get up, leave, next person sits in seat, contacts viral load – apps miss this completely).
Lots more here on why Bluetooth-based, smart phone tracking apps are very unlikely to work well.
The U.K. is testing their own Bluetooth-based app on the Isle of Wight and news reports suggest the test is not going well. The NHS is being secretive about what they are learning. The app was originally to have been rolled out nationwide about 3 weeks ago… but for now, there are no updates on the test. Another problem is the U.K.’s system is a privacy nightmare.
