Belgium's contact tracing app will be pilot launched on Friday with 10,000 test users across Belgium with view of release for the general public by the end of the month.
"We have chosen, just like in the Netherlands, not to make the app immediately available for the entire country," Karine Moykens, federal coordinator of the Testing and Tracing strategy told HLN.
The 10,000 volunteers will be tasked with testing the mobile app for user-friendliness over a ten-day period.
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"If everything goes well, we can finally launch the app in the week of 28 September," Moykens added.
Regional officials in Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia and in the German-Speaking Community were asked to submit test persons who will receive a link to download the application by Friday.
For the pilot period, app developers will be working with user groups who normally work together, according to Axel Legay, a professor and UC Leuven involved in the development of the app.
"Among the test users there are namely staff members from KU Leuven in Flanders as well as public servants in Wallonia," he told RTBF.
The release of the app was last week pushed back as Belgium was on standby for an opinion from the European Union on the app's potential inter-operability in between member states.
The bloc's advice is not expected before 17 September.
The Brussels Times
