The app designed by the Directorate of Health to track COVID-19 infections in Iceland has been updated with new languages. At the time of this writing, the app is available in Icelandic, English, Polish, Russian, Thai, French, and Spanish with plans to add Japanese, Filipino, Arabic, Farsi, and Lithuanian in the near future. German, Italian, and other languages are also slated to join the club.
More significant changes are expected in coming weeks. In addition to the new languages, users will be able to make direct calls to a healthcare facility from the app. This is just in time for the borders to reopen on June 15th.
Ingi Steinar Ingason, team director at the Directorate of Health, said that the Directorate of Health will not monitor whether tourists use the app, although they will encourage them to do so. In addition, it is important for Icelanders to use the app now that many restrictions have been lifted. At the time of this writing, roughly 140,000 users have downloaded the app.
“What we are doing now is preparing for the arrival of passengers next week, and we hope to have a new version of the app on Monday when testing begins at Keflavík Airport,” Ingi told RÚV. He added that the app was being used to deliver the results of the tests, and the developers of the app aim to establish a source of information for tourists. “We are developing functionality for travelers so that they have easy information about where to look if they start to notice symptoms or something,” he said.
*UPDATE: A previous version of this article said that the app was only available in English, Icelandic and Polish. That has been amended with additional information.
As ever, those looking for more information or advice should go to the Icelandic Government’s excellent COVID-19 help page.
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