At Thursday’s press conference, New Brunswick Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell put a plug in for COVID Alert, Canada’s COVID-19 exposure notification app.
PEI is the latest province to make the app fully functional, and Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health said recently Nova Scotia will soon join as well.
New Brunswick, along with Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and PEI have all signed on for the app, meaning residents of those provinces are able to formally report a diagnosis into the system.
Unlike other COVID related apps, Canada’s COVID alert does not use GPS or track people’s locations. Instead, the app uses Bluetooth technology, a device to device system that many use with headphones and speakers.
When two phones with the COVID Alert app installed and active are close to each other, they exchange a code over Bluetooth.
If one of the app’s users gets diagnosed with COVID-19, they will get a one-time key from their provincial public health authority, and upload it to their app. The app will then notify all other users they have had close contact with in the past 14 days, based on the randomly generated codes on their phone.
The system isn’t comprehensive. Close contacts who didn’t have a phone with the app installed and activated nearby would not be notified.
One major issue with widespread adoption of the app is the fact that it is not compatible with some older phones. The app requires users to have Apple or Android phones made in the last five years, and a relatively new operating system.
But Dr. Russell is still hoping New Brunswickers will activate the app.
“I do encourage all New Brunswickers to download and use this app,” says Russell, “because obviously, the more people that use the app, the more people we can protect with it.”
