New York rolls out new COVID-19 contact tracing app
New York has launched a new contact tracing app that will alert users if they’ve been in close proximity with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. The app, COVID Alert NY, was released Thursday as the state continues to see an alarming surge in infections primarily in New York City, where the positivity rate reached 1.52 percent yesterday. Gov Andrew Cuomo explained how the technology works during a press conference, saying that it uses Bluetooth technology to sense when a person spends more than 10 minutes within six feet of another user. The app will keep track of a person’s contacts so that if they do test positive, anyone who may have been at risk of contracting the virus from them beforehand can be notified by the health department – if they also have the app downloaded.Cuomo assured that no names will appear on the app so that personal privacy is protected, and said that the app will not collect or store any personal information. He noted that downloading the app is voluntary but urged as many people as possible to sign up. ‘It’s using technology really on a level it’s never been used before,’ the governor said, adding that the app will be hugely helpful to the 15,000 ‘disease detectives’ already performing contact tracing in the state. Cuomo’s office stressed that the app has been vetted by national security experts to ensure that it won’t pose any risk of violating personal privacy. ‘We don’t collect any data,’ aide Larry Schwartz said. ‘There’s no locator device on the app, so it doesn’t track anyone who downloads the app at all, we were very sensitive to making sure – the key to this is to get people to voluntary download the app, otherwise it doesn’t work.’ Share this article Share The app – developed with help from Google, Apple and the Linux Foundation – is now available for free download on iPhones and Android devices for anyone 18 and older. New York was able to release it for free thanks to federal funding and donations from the Bloomberg Philanthropy Organization which covered the $700,000 development cost. Cuomo said New Jersey and Delaware have already started using the same app and that Connecticut and Pennsylvania will be online soon. He added that the technology will be available to any state interested in using it. The app roll-out came as New York state ramps up efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus amid rising infection rates – driven primarily by clusters in New York City. Coronavirus clusters in 10 zip codes across Brooklyn and Queens had caused the average citywide seven-day infection rate to rise to 1.52 percent, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday. New York City on Thursday recorded its highest daily new case average in at least a month with 394 coronavirus infections. The 10 zip codes in Brooklyn and Queens are now also part of the 20 hotspots zip codes across New York state that collectively have an average infection rate of 6.5 percent, Cuomo said on Thursday. Those 20 hotspo
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