Gembloux-based company Inforius is currently working on a smartphone application that will allow us to find out if we have been in contact with someone who is carrying the virus.

What is obvious is that the population will have to be tested if we are to safely and gradually ease the lockdown restrictions. But testing every single person in the territory seems complicated, particularly within a short timeframe. The application developed by Inforius could therefore be one of the keys to ending the lockdown faster and more safely.

Indeed, we know that there are asymptomatic carriers and that the length of the incubation period promotes infection. When someone tests positive for Covid-19, imagine if a text message is sent to everyone who has been within two metres of them for a certain time, over the last three weeks… to invite them for a screening test, for example. This would limit the number of asymptomatic carriers who are unaware of this and thus lower the number of new infections.

Minister De Backer has stated that, "these devices are part of the strategy for ending lockdown." As his competences are regional, discussions are underway to see how it is possible to quickly identify and isolate people with the virus and warn those people with whom they have been in contact. Inforius has guaranteed that data will remain anonymous, which is a line that cannot be crossed due to GDPR.