The German government has asked SAP SE and Deutsche Telekom AG to develop an app to trace coronavirus infections.

“Deutsche Telekom and SAP will play their part in Germany and throughout Europe to ensure that European digital technologies are a central component in the effective fight against coronavirus,” SAP said Monday in an email.

Other parties will also be involved in the creation of the app, a person familiar with the situation said, without giving names of the other parties involved. SAP referred questions on the status of the project to the government.

Germany said Sunday it would opt for a decentralised solution to help monitor those who have contracted Covid-19 and alert people who have come into contact with the infected patients.

Under a decentralised system, contact tracing apps collect anonymous data about nearby mobile phones using Bluetooth technology through tools such as those being built by Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google. Once an infection is confirmed, that information is sent to a server. People with devices using the app could learn if they had been in proximity to a confirmed infection without revealing the patient’s identity.

"A decentralised solution would create more trust among users,” Steffen Seibert, spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Monday.

A group of German startups also had been in talks with the government about developing an app that would help trace people who have been exposed to the virus.

 - Bloomberg