The “Apturi Covid” contact tracing app, developed in part by LMT, is one of the first to participate in EU interoperability testing.

The European Commission has announced that it is setting up an interoperability gateway service that will link contact tracing apps from different countries. There are six countries participating with their national contact tracing apps, which include Latvia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Ireland.

The “Apturi Covid” app is the nationally recognized contact exposure app in Latvia. Many other European countries have their own developed apps. The interoperability gateway will then make it possible to receive warnings about exposure even if you are using a different country’s app. It is planned that this functionality will be made available in October of 2020.

Currently we are actively involved in testing the new solution as well as its necessary digital infrastructure. In situations where people are returning to their everyday rhythms and returning to regular international travel or attending public events, expanding the “Apturi Covid” app's functionality is a logical and critically important step.

Elīna Lidere, head of communications at LMT.

In May of 2020, “Apturi Covid” became the first app to publicly launch a COVID-19 contact tracing app using the Google and Apple exposure notification API. Since then, many countries have followed suit, with the UK’s NHS launching their contact tracing app on September 24th.

LMT, along with other Latvian ICT industry participants, have voluntarily developed and maintained the “Apturi Covid” app. Other partners include MakIT, Autentica, TestDevLab, IT centrs, Zippy Vision, experts from the University of Latvia, and TechHub Riga cofounder Andris K. Bērziņš. The solution was evaluated by the Chancery of the President of Latvia, the Latvian Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, NATO StratCom, as well as medical professionals and epidemiologists.