VDH Launches Free Smartphone App That Alerts Users To Possible COVID-19 Exposure

Press release from the City of Fairfax:

08/05/2020

The Virginia Department of Health has launched COVIDWISE, a free app for Apple and Android smartphones that sends the phone alerts if you have been in contact, or been close to, an individual who has tested positive for COVD-19.

The app does not track or store personal information, or use GPS.

Here's how it works:

• Download the free app via the iPhone App Store or Android Google Play Store.

• Once you opt-in to the notification system, the Exposure Notifications System generates an anonymous token for your device. To help ensure these anonymous tokens can't be used to identify you or your location, they change every 10-20 minutes.

• Your phone and the phones around you will work in the background, without draining your battery or data, to exchange these privacy-preserving anonymous tokens via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. This is a passive process that begins once you opt-in, and functions even when the app is not open.

• Every day, your phone downloads a list of all the anonymous tokens associated with positive COVID-19 cases and checks them against the list of anonymous tokens it has encountered in the last 14 days.

• If there's a match, the app will notify you with further instructions from your public health authority on how to keep you and the people around you safe.

Virginians are encouraged to download COVIDWISE and maintain current data.

Virginia is the first commonwealth or state to launch this type of app in the nation. Information: vdh.virginia.gov/COVIDWISE

This press release was produced by the City of Fairfax. The views expressed here are the author’s own.