During the past few months, Canadians have been in quarantine following public health advice in order to minimize COVID-19 cases. Now, as more regions have begun the progress on moving into stage III of reopening, there still needs to be precautions set into place on mitigating active cases of the virus to stay safe and healthy.
COVID Alert is an app that was recently launched which is available for free download from the App Store or the Google Play Store. The app alerts users if they may have come in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Coronavirus.
One main issue is that the app does not work on certain older-model phones. COVID Alert requires users to have Apple or Android phones that are models created within the past five years. Furthermore, COVID Alert will not work on Android phones running versions older than 6, and iPhones running IOS versions below 13.5.
As of right now, the app is completely voluntary and serves as an instrument to the public to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Patients who test positive for COVID-19 will receive a one-time code from their doctor that they can enter into the app.
When the code is entered, COVID Alert will instantly alert other users who may have come in close contact with that person for at least 15 minutes in the past 14 days. COVID Alert uses Bluetooth to pings other users of the app when they are within a 2-metre range of someone who tested positive.
To ensure that privacy is protected, COVID Alert maintains strong measures to protect any data it collects. Moreover, the app doesn’t track a user's location or collect personal information. Since privacy was a big area that COVID Alert desires to protect, the Privacy Commissioners of Canada and Ontario were consulted on the development of the app.
The app launched on Aug. 3, as of right now, it has been downloaded 1.3 million times. This roughly translates to about 3.42 percent of the country’s population. Experts have previously said, “at least 60 percent of a given population needs to be running the app for it to be effective against the spread of the pandemic” (Oxford University). As of right now, COVID Alert is only running in Ontario, however, the app is available for download across Canada.
- Kelly Tong (Technology Reporter/Researcher @ Tech Coaches)