PARIS: France is hoping to deploy its state-supported "StopCOVID" contact-tracing app by June 2, said the country's Minister for Digital Affairs, Cedric O, while lamenting that Apple had declined to take part in the project.

"We hope to have something by June 2," Cedric O told BFM Business TV. "We are pursuing our roadmap," he added.

"Apple could have helped us make the application work even better on the iPhone. They have not wished to do so," he said.

"I regret this, given that we are in a period where everyone is mobilised to fight against the epidemic, and given that a large company that is doing so well economically is not helping out a government in this crisis."

He said he could not explain the reasoning behind Apple's decision not to take part.

Officials at Apple in France did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

France's state-supported "StopCOVID" contact-tracing app should enter its testing phase in the week of May 11 when the country starts to unwind its lockdown, the minister said earlier this month.

Countries are rushing to develop apps which, along with a wider testing and tracking programme, are seen as key to easing the social distancing rules that have all but shut global economies.

However, some lawmakers in France have raised privacy issues as reasons to be cautious over such Covid-tracing apps.

Britain will start testing its own Covid-19 tracing app on the Isle of Wight from May 5.

 - Reuters