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COVID-19

France to release smartphone version of lockdown permission form

The French government has announced that it will soon make a smartphone version of the compulsory lockdown permission form available to the public.

Published: 2 April 2020 17:52 CEST
Updated: 3 April 2020 14:17 CEST
France to release smartphone version of lockdown permission form
A smartphone permission form will be available from Monday. Photo: AFP

Up until now, the attestation de déplacement dérogatoire, which everyone must carry with them when they leave their home, has only been allowed in paper format.

This has meant members of the public who need to leave their homes to go shopping or for a short jog have needed to either print or write out their permission slip.

READ ALSO How does the new smartphone permission form work?

But on Thursday Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told Le Parisien newspaper that from Monday April 6th a smartphone version will be made available.

“The service will be accessible online, via the Ministry of Interior's website as well as the French government's.

“From now one the French are used to the rules of lockdown, so it's right that they are given a little flexibility via this tool,” said Castaner.

Since the rules around leaving the home were tightened last week, members of the public have to include the time when they left home on the signed and dated form.

This will still be compulsory but with the smartphone version police will be able to determine the time when someone edited the document.

This will prevent people simply filling out the document when they see the police, the minister says.

The smartphone document will include a QR code which will give the police the information they need.

The form does not need to be signed as was first suggested by authorities.

READ ALSO: This is how France's lockdown permission form works

The form currently has to be either printed out or – for people who do not have a home printer – written out in full. Photo: AFP

In the event of being stopped, the police officer will be able to scan the QR code on your phone. This prevents the police officer from exposing themselves to the risk of infection by touching hundreds of people's phones.

It also ensures that no data gets collected from the user, France's Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said when presenting the plan to Le Parisien.

The government briefly attempted to launch a permission form on a smartphone application in the first days of the lockdown, which begun on March 17th.

But because of the difficulties of controlling the app and a risk of having the data stolen, they quickly stopped.

 

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HEALTH

France’s Covid-19 app to be ‘put to sleep’

France's Covid-tracker app, used for months for the all-important 'health pass' will be switched off today, health officials have confirmed.

Published: 30 June 2023 13:29 CEST
France’s Covid-19 app to be 'put to sleep'

Covid-19 screening in France reaches an important milestone on Friday, June 30th, 2023 – when the TousAntiCovid app is officially ‘put to sleep’.

The app, which was launched in June 2020 as France came out of its first lockdown of the pandemic and has undergone a number of iterations, including as a delivery device for the health pass, will be switched off. 

For most people, this anniversary will pass without mention. Few people have consulted the app in recent months, and it has sat dormant on many smartphones since France’s Covid-19 health pass requirement was suspended in March 2022.

Meanwhile, the Système d’Informations de DEPistage (SI-DEP) interface – which has been informing people about their test results since the Spring of 2020 – is also being shut down on June 30th, as per legal requirements.

The SI-DEP shutdown means that it will also be impossible to retrieve Covid test certificates issued before June 30th, should the need arise. All data held by the database will be “destroyed”, officials have said.

It has handled more than 320 million antigen and PCR tests since it was introduced.

This does not mean that testing for Covid-19 has stopped, or is now unnecessary. As reported recently, more than 1,000 deaths a week in Europe are still caused by the virus.

The shutdown of the national information system does not mean that people in France cannot still book an appointment for an antigen test at a pharmacy, or a PCR test at a laboratory. But the number of people going for testing is declining rapidly. In recent days, according to Le Parisien, just 15,000 people in France took a Covid test – the lowest number, it said, since the pandemic started.

Reimbursement rules for testing changed on March 1st, with only certain categories of people – minors, those aged 65 and over, or immunosuppressed patients – covered for the entire cost of testing.

From Friday, only PCR test results will be transmitted to authorities for data purposes, meaning pharmacists that only offer antigen testing will be locked out of the online interface to record test results.

The reason for the shift in priorities is to maintain “minimal epidemiological surveillance”, the Ministry of Health has reportedly told scientists.

As a result test certificates, showing a positive or negative result, will no longer be issued from July 1st. Since February 1st, anyone taking a test has had to give consent to share their data in order to obtain a certificate. 

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