Pennsylvania plans to launch a coronavirus exposure notification app in early September in an effort to break down transmission chains more quickly by using new technology to alert people who may have been exposed, officials said Monday.
The state has a $ 1.9 million contract to deploy and maintain the app with software developer NearForm Ltd, the Ireland-based company whose app is downloaded by more than a quarter of that country’s residents.
The app is based on smartphone technology developed by Apple and Google, and will undergo a pilot project next week, using state government employees and students for public health, staff and faculty, officials told The Associated Press in an interview.
The app will be interoperable with the state of Delaware’s app, and is also expected to be interoperable with that of two other states, although Pennsylvania officials declined to name these states because they are still in talks with the app developer.
“The app is about Pennsylvania helping Pennsylvaniaers, it’s about a community that can let each other know and follow each other’s exposition, so we can keep each other safe,” a Department of Health spokesman said in April. Hutcheson.
Its use will be restricted to persons 18 years and older.
It’s similar to the app that was unveiled by Virginia earlier this month, when it became the first U.S. state to use new pandemic technology made by Apple and Google.
North Dakota and Wyoming have also launched an app with Apple-Google technology in recent days, and a number of other states are interested in it, Google said.
It is designed to automatically notify people if they may have been exposed to the coronavirus, and state officials say the app does not store location information, personal information or identify anyone who is in close enough reach to be exposed. .
It relies on Bluetooth wireless technology to detect if someone has spent time downloading the app with another app user who later tests positive for the virus.
As a threshold, the app uses the Centers for Disease Control guidelines to be at least 15 minutes within 6 feet, said Meghna Patel, Deputy Secretary for Health Innovation at the Department of Health.
The identity of app users will be protected by encryption and anonymous identification beacons that change frequently, the companies said.
Patel said Ireland and Germany are good examples of where apps like this are successful. More than 25% or 30% of the populations of those countries have downloaded the app and it has issued notifications that helped break chains of transmission, Patel said.
Someone who tests positive in Pennsylvania is reported to the Department of Public Health as a municipal health department and contacted a case investigator. That investigator will ask the infected person if they have the app and if they are ready to use it to notify mobile phone users who have been in close contact with them in the past 14 days, officials said. state.
If they are ready to use it, they will receive a six-digit code to enter to issue a notification, state officials said. A person who receives a notification will receive something like a warning to check the app, with instructions from the health department on how they can protect themselves and others, including information on staying home, quarantine and medical help search.
The identification of the person infected is protected from people receiving a notification, and vice versa, they said.
In addition to notification of exposure, the Pennsylvania app will have a data feature that allows the user to see current information about case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths by province, as well as a feature that helps the user to control his symptoms, even if they have not positive testing, Patel said.
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