The Government has spent 4,265,499.93 euros on the launch, operation and publication of ‘Radar Covid’, the mobile application developed to help control the spread of COVID-19 through the identification of potential close contacts of confirmed cases via Bluetooth technology.
As stated in a parliamentary response to deputy Pablo Cambronero Piqueras, of the Mixed Parliamentary Group.
Cambronero, who registered his question in Congress on December 22, questioned the cost of its development, what its usefulness has been in the pandemic, who has been responsible for the public money invested in this tool and, finally, before “The superfluous spending of public money” that it has entailed, asks for their resignation from it due to the “little or no effectiveness” of the mobile application ‘Radar Covid’.
The Government did not answer all the questions of the deputy, however it contradicts him by highlighting its usefulness, as well as the prestige of the pilot project that was carried out in the Canarian municipality of San Sebastián de La Gomera, whose study was published in Nature magazine.
“During this phase, the studies confirmed that the app is capable of alerting an average of 6 close contacts for each confirmed case. From this point of view, ‘Radar Covid’ is a tool that has contributed, automatically, to the identification of COVID-19 cases that have been conveniently isolated and treated,” the Government concludes.
