In the question, addressed to the Minister of Health through Parliament, Ms Ana Rita Bessa and Cecilia Meireles ask “how many cases have already been registered in the Covid StayAway app, since its official launch” and also “how many propagation chains have already been identified” through this application.

They also want to know “what mechanisms the government has at its disposal to ensure that the codes, when generated, are provided and inserted” in the application.

The text states that the Covid StayAway application “has been in use for about three months”, but “is only useful if, when a case is diagnosed, the infected person receives a 12-digit code generated by the NHS doctor, which is unique and valid for a single use”, a code which must be voluntarily entered “within the next 24 hours” so that “people with whom you have had contact at risk in the last 14 days can be notified”.

“However, and although, according to information made public, more than 2.5 million Portuguese have already installed the ‘app’ on their mobile phones, there have been several reports that only about 1 percent of new cases are reported, either because health professionals do not provide the code in due time, or do not provide it at all, or because the users themselves do not type it in on StayAway Covid”, the CDS points out.

“Why are doctors and/or NHS [National Health Service] technicians not providing the necessary codes for inclusion in the Covid StayAway app,” the Christian Democrats also ask.

According to the centrists, “it is also added that a significant part of the Portuguese population, including the most vulnerable, do not have the mobile equipment necessary for installation and use” of the application, and “all of this calls into question the operation and usefulness of StayAway Covid app”.