A federal government source told the Canadian press that the Canadian COVID Alert app will stop working in the coming days.

The app was launched in the summer of 2020 when the pandemic began and was described as a way to alert people if they were in close contact with someone infected with COVID-19, without collecting personal data.

But it requires users to enter a one-time key, given to them when they receive a positive PCR test result, and with many provinces replacing PCR tests with rapid tests, user keys are not being provided.

The app has been criticized as ineffective and not living up to expectations, and while 6.89 million people had downloaded it as of February 1, only 57,704 user keys were used.

Meanwhile, there have been an estimated 3.87 million COVID-19 cases in Canada since the start of the pandemic and more than 41,000 people have died.

The app cost $20 million, $15.9 million was spent on promotion and advertising, and another $3.5 million on app development and maintenance.