EPICOM is your personal "compass" for the infection process in the corona pandemic. Use EPICOM to check the current corona infection rate and the risk level for your location. The app warns you if you are approaching a risk area or if you were recently in a risky area. You can track your own movement profile and deduce your risk of infection from it. EPICOM has links to all official websites of state governments, municipalities and districts. There you will find the official instructions regarding Corona. This is how you get the most important information for yourself and to protect your community. All data is stored exclusively on your smartphone. The source code of EPICOM is public. EPICOM is a philanthropic project that has been developed under the name EBOLAPP since 2014 to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa through donations, funds and volunteer engagement. The free app is run by the non-profit and government-independent association Freunde Liberias e. V ..
what can E P I C O M do
EPICOM is a free app with which you can check the current Corona infection rate at your location or in another area. It's kind of your "compass" for the pandemic. EPICOM warns you if you are approaching a risk area with a higher infection rate than that at your current location or if you were recently in a location that has meanwhile become a risk area. You can track your own movement profile of the last 14 days in the app and recognize when you have been in one place for more than 15 minutes. Contacts with a risk of infection are so easy for you to reconstruct. EPICOM also has links to all official websites of state governments, municipalities and districts with codes of conduct and official instructions regarding Corona. In this way, you will receive the most important information you need for yourself and to protect your environment.
privacy
The protection of your data is very important to us. Your data will only be stored on your own smartphone. Your movement profile does not appear as a line, but rather in the form of points that stand for the places where you have been staying for longer than 15 minutes. If you want to understand how EPICOM was programmed, you can download the source code of the app and at the data protection here:
Operator of E P I C O M
Operator of EPICOM is the non-profit and non-governmental association Freunde Liberiase.V.. which was founded in 2011. The association doesn't want to earn money with the app, your data isn't valuable for it, and it doesn't represent the government of your country. It developed EPICOM exclusively through donations, subsidies, and volunteering.
E P I C O M 2.0
EPICOM is continuously developed and improved by us. The following additional functions are possible if necessary in the course of future updates:
Proof of vaccination
By submitting a personalised QR code to your mobile phone, you can prove that you are vaccinated against Covid-19 and are therefore no longer a risk to thecommunity.
Warning
If you have infected yourself, you can view your own movement profile as a reminder and warn the relevantcontacts of a risk of infection without the intervention of third parties using a pre-formulated standard text.
Health hotline
You can use this function to quickly and conveniently contact the nearest clinic or the local health office.
Medical rules of conduct
You will receive medical behavioural recommendations in the caseof illness via this function. For certain diseases, timely vaccination can still prevent the outbreak of the disease shortly after infection. In addition, further infection can be avoided if you follow the recommendations.
Web info
You have the opportunity to read all current publications on Covid-19 online in a clearly organized manner in the app.
Donations
You have the option of transferring a donation to the EPICOM operator for the operation and further development of EPICOM via the app.
Contact diary
You can manageyour contacts, your state of health, if necessary to record symptoms in the app, among other things, and thus simplify contact tracking and quickly answer important health issues in the caseof infection.
Check in
When you visit a restaurant, a sports event or the like, you can leave your contact details via the app and a QR code without being able to be read by the operator/organizer. In case you were infectious, everyone who was in the same place with you at the same time can simply be informed.
history
During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014/15, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Liberia in Leipzig, together with the Friends of Liberia Association, developed the world's first warning app for the use in epidemics/pandemics based on contact tracking and tracings via GPS and Bluetooth. EBOLAPP, the name of the app, was finally tested in February 2020 at the JFK hospital, the largest hospital in Liberia. Shortly after the field test was completed in February 2020, the WHO declared the corona epidemic a global pandemic. EBOLAPP served as a model for the German Corona app from then on. After evaluating the field trial and the numerous Corona apps worldwide, the development team adapted the operating principle of EBOLAPP and programmed and published the German version under the name EPICOM
Thanks to supporters
Freunde Liberias e.V. thanks all sponsors, donors and supporters. Without them, EPICOM would not have been possible.
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Michael Kölsch, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Liberia
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Thomas Köppig (former CEOFreunde Liberias e.V., died 2019)
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Appsfactory GmbH Leipzig
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Freistaat Sachsen: "This projectis co-financed by taxpayers' money on the basis of the budget decided by the Saxony state parliament"
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Steffen Bastian for JUWELIS GLOBAL
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Hubert Jäger German Ambassador
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Ronny Stein, Engelstein GmbH
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Ilona Riedel,
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Maik Ringel
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Prof. Dr. Markus Scholz
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Robert Menz
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Dr. Georg Flascha
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Stephan Schmitz
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Horst Eichler
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Dr. Jörn Ackermann
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Lars Kölsch
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Franz Wilkening
The protagonists
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Initiative, idea and concept: Michael Kölsch
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Programming: Appsfactory GmbH
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Law: Lawyer Maik Ringel KPMG
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Medical counselling: Prof. Dr. Markus Scholz IMISE
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Responsible operator : Freunde Liberias e.V.
Donations
For the further development and operation of EPICOM, the association Freunde Liberias e. V. needs further donations.
Of course, if you wish, you will receive a donation receipt.
You can donate here:
Friends of Liberia e.V.
IBAN: DE57 8605 5592 1090 0531 73
BIC: WELADE8L (XXX)
(Sparkasse Leipzig)
E P I C O M Africa
EPICOM will be available in Liberia/Africa under the name EBOLAPP. Unlike in Germany, the app will cover measles, lassa, cholera, and Ebola in addition to Covid-19. The development team is currently working on the necessary data transfer from Liberia to Germany. It remains the firm intention of the Friends Liberias e.V. to make the app available to Liberia/Africa soon.
name E P I C O M
"Epidemic compass" is a comprehensive functional description of the German version of EBOLAPP in just two words. In German, the English “epidemic” means not only epidemic but also pandemic. Compass in German is not only a technical instrument for determination of directions, but also synonymous for the alignment of a person according to values and their orientation in life. In this respect, the word pair "epidemic compass" and its shortening to the acronym EPICOM is an accurate description of the benefits of the German version of EBOLAPP.
We obtain our information on the geodata of the districts and federal states, their names, and the associated daily Covid-19 case numbers from the Robert Koch Institute. This makes its data available at https://npgeo-corona-npgeo-de.hub.arcgis.com/search?groupIds=b28109b18022405bb965c602b13e1bbc with the following license: “Data license Germany - Attribution - Version 2.0” https://www.govdata.de/dl-de/by-2-0
information on risk areas
interface from Apple and Google
The development team has expressly refrained from using the interface (api) for EPICOM that Google and Apple provide for Corona warning apps worldwide. On the one hand, the app remains independent of the two large corporations. On the other hand, the app can also cover other diseases in addition to Covid-19 if the api of Google and Apple isnot used. This is especially essential for the use in Africa. The two large corporations explicitly restrict the use of the common api to the use against Covid-19. The use of the app against Lassa, measles, cholera and Ebola planned for Africa would not be possible if the api of the two large corporations were used.