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Pennsylvania plans to launch a coronavirus exposure notification app in early September with the goal of more quickly breaking chains of transmission by using the new technology to notify 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 Irish company whose app has been 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 be piloted next week, with state government employees and public health students, staff and professors, officials told The Associated Press in an interview.
The app will be interoperable with the Delaware state app and is expected to be interoperable with those of two other states as well, although Pennsylvania state officials have declined to name those states as they are still in discussions with the developer of the application.
“The app is about Pennsylvanians helping Pennsylvanians, it is as a community to be able to make each other known and follow each other’s exposure so that we can protect each other,” the ministry spokesperson said. Health, April Hutcheson.
Its use will be limited to persons 18 years of age and over.
It’s similar to the app Virginia rolled out earlier this month, when it became the first U.S. state to use new pandemic technology created by Apple and Google.
North Dakota and Wyoming have also launched an app using Apple-Google technology in recent days, and a number of other states are looking into it, Google said.
It’s designed to automatically notify people if they may have been exposed to the coronavirus, and state officials say the app doesn’t store the location information, personal information, or the identity of anyone who turns up. is at a distance close enough to possibly be exposed.
It relies on Bluetooth wireless technology to detect when someone who has downloaded the app has spent time near another user of the app who then tested positive for the virus.
As a threshold, the app uses the Centers for Disease Control’s directive to be within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes, said Meghna Patel, assistant secretary for health innovation at the Department of Health.
The identities of app users will be protected by encryption and anonymous identification tags that change frequently, the companies said.
Patel said Ireland and Germany are good examples of areas where apps like this have been successful. More than 25% or 30% of the people in those countries have downloaded the app and it has posted notifications that have helped break the chains of transmission, Patel said.
A person who tests positive in Pennsylvania is reported to the Department of Health or a municipal health department and contacted by an investigator. This investigator will ask the infected person if they own the app and if they are ready to use it to notify cellphone users who have been in close contact with them in the past 14 days, officials said. ‘State.
If they’re ready to use it, they’re given a six-digit code to enter and then issue a notification, state officials said. A person who receives a notification will receive something like an alert to verify the app, with instructions from the Department of Health on how to protect themselves and others, including information on keeping home, quarantine and seeking medical help.
The identity of the infected person is protected from those notified, and vice versa, they said.
In addition to exposure notification, the Pennsylvania app will have a data feature that allows the user to see up-to-date information on case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths by county, as well as a feature that helps the user monitor their symptoms even if they haven’t tested positive, Patel said.
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