COVID-19 exposure notification system launches for Alaska smartphone users after delays

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A COVID-19 exposure notification app is launching for Alaska smartphone users. Officials say the app, which has been in the works for over a year, is another tool to help reduce virus spread — but its usefulness depends on how many people opt in.

An app that can anonymously notify Alaskans when they have likely been a close contact of someone with COVID-19 is launching for smartphone users all over the state, coming just as the highly contagious omicron variant sweeps through Alaska.

“The idea is we have people who may have been exposed and may have COVID-19, but don’t know about it,” said Kenrick Mock, who helped develop the. Mock is the dean of the University of Alaska Anchorage’s College of Engineering and a computer science professor. “If they get a prompt that they may have been exposed, then they can go get tested and hopefully stop spreading COVID to other people in the community.

Here’s how it works for people who have opted in: Their phones will send out randomly generated codes to nearby opted-in phones The app’s launch in Alaska arrives as health officials describe a recent shift in the way contact tracing is conducted at the state level. State health officials said this month that they are moving away from broad contact tracing efforts to focus on congregate settings and other vulnerable populations — which means it will soon be up to most individuals to report their positive test results to close contacts themselves.

“How much it is useful in the state will very much depend on how much Alaskans choose to engage in this tool or not,” Zink said.

 

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