Berlin, May 4 (IANS): New features have been introduced into Germany's official Covid-19 warning app, enabling users to receive and store the results of their rapid tests in the app in addition to the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, the government announced.

The new version 2.1 was intended to "help users warn their environment even more quickly in the future after a positive rapid test result, and thus interrupt infection chains more quickly", Xinhua news agency quoted the government as saying in a statement on Monday.

With the new features, users in Germany could show their negative rapid test results, for example, when shopping or going to the hairdresser, according to the government.

The negative result would be displayed in the coronavirus warning app for 48 hours.

The app had 27.4 million downloads by the end of April, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

A total of 424,067 users in Germany have shared their positive test results via the app since its launch.