“Immuni” and the National Health System: Lessons Learnt from the COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing in Italy

Silvia Ussai, Marco Pistis, Eduardo Missoni, Beatrice Formenti, Benedetta Armocida, Tatiana Pedrazzi, Francesco Castelli, Lorenzo Monasta, Baldassare Lauria and Ilaria Mariani
Additional contact information
Silvia Ussai: Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Marco Pistis: Section of Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Eduardo Missoni: Center for Research on Health and Social Care Management (CERGAS), Bocconi University, 20124 Milan, Italy
Beatrice Formenti: Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, University of Brescia and ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Benedetta Armocida: Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Ageing, 00161 Rome, Italy
Tatiana Pedrazzi: Department of Occupational Medicine, Hygiene, Toxicology and Occupational Prevention, University of Brescia and ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Francesco Castelli: Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, University of Brescia and ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Lorenzo Monasta: Clinical Epidemiology and Public Health Research Unit, Institute for Maternal and Child Health—IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy
Baldassare Lauria: G. Gulotta” Foundation, 50100 Florence, Italy
Ilaria Mariani: WHO Collaborating Centre, Institute for Maternal and Child Health—IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, 34137 Trieste, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-7

Abstract: Since the early stage of the current pandemic, digital contact tracing (DCT) through mobile phone apps, called “Immuni”, has been introduced to complement manual contact tracing in Italy. Until 31 December 2021, Immuni identified 44,880 COVID-19 cases, which corresponds to less than 1% of total COVID-19 cases reported in Italy in the same period (5,886,411). Overall, Immuni generated 143,956 notifications. Although the initial download of the Immuni app represented an early interest in the new tool, Immuni has had little adoption across the Italian population, and the recent increase in its download is likely to be related to the mandatory Green Pass certification for conducting most daily activities that can be obtained via the application. Therefore, Immuni failed as a support tool for the contact tracing system. Other European experiences seem to show similar limitations in the use of DTC, leaving open questions about its effectiveness, although in theory, contact tracing could allow useful means of “proximity tracking”.

Keywords: immuni; Italy; contact tracing system; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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